“a scatological and soft-porn cinema verité of childhood, of puberty, of growing up”: Sandy Rovner, “Talking It Out with Judy Blume,” Washington Post, November 3, 1981, p. B1.
asserting that she “may never win any prizes for literary quality”: Patricia O’Brien, “Judy Blume—Banned Again,” Hartford Courant, March 12, 1980, p. 15.
“He really hated stuffy children’s books”: PS to RB, May 27, 2022.
“shopping list… entirely forgettable, drab, flat”: David Rees, “Not Even For a One-Night Stand: Judy Blume,” The Marble in the Water (Boston: The Horn Book, 1980), pp. 173–84.
“The reader’s reaction is laughter—anything from an embarrassed snigger”: Ibid.
“In children’s books, since they became a thing at the beginning of the twentieth century”: RS to RB, June 10, 2022.
“Dick, he once said to me, ‘We’re writing sugar-coated bitter pills’ ”: PS to RB, May 27, 2022.
“anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic and just plain filthy”: Edward Labaton, “The Board and the Books,” New York Times, August 29, 1982, sec. 11, p. 22.
“Two of the authors banned in Island Trees were among the most important”: Email with Steven Pico, April 19, 2022.
“They [the members] did not read the books in their entirety”: Nicole Chavez, “He Took His School to the Supreme Court in the 1980s,” CNN.com, June 25, 2022. https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/25/us/book-bans-island-trees-union-free-school-district-v-pico/index.html.
He did, in fact, get accepted to Haverford College: Lini S. Kadaba, “Standing Up for Freedom,” Haverford.edu, September 20, 2022. https://www.haverford.edu/college-communications/news/standing-freedom.
“Until the day I die, I refuse to budge on my position”: Michael Winerip, “L.I. School Board Ends Its Fight to Ban Books,” New York Times, January 31, 1983, sec. B, p. 7.
“He was a real nonconformist and he was someone who believed”: Zoom interview with Karen Fleshman, April 3, 2023.
“By the time I’m growing up, it’s a big hotbed of the John Birch Society”: Ibid., April 3, 2023.
“For Karen, a brave young woman and a real friend”: Ibid., April 3, 2023.
“It really gave me confidence the rest of my life”: Ibid., April 3, 2023.
Chapter Nineteen
Allies
“Democracy is exhausting”: Betty Miles, Maudie and Me and the Dirty Book (New York: Avon Books, 1980), p. 140.
“Just then, Blackie gave a little moan, and her stomach began to ripple”: Ibid., p. 47.
“How did the puppy get in there… inside his mommy”: Ibid., p. 48.
“Kids this age can be embarrassingly frank!”: Ibid., pp. 50–51.
“it was a crime to spend public funds on smut like that!”: Ibid., p. 89.
“You’ve probably heard,” the ringleader tells Kate’s mother: Ibid., p. 115.
“I’m Kate Harris,” she announces in front of the board: Ibid., p. 135.
“Norma Klein was my first writer friend,” Blume told Terry Gross: “Judy Blume Was Banned from the Beginning but Says ‘It Never Stopped Me from Writing,” Fresh Air, April 24, 2023. https://www.npr.org/2023/04/24/1171112806/judy-blume-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-forever.
“Well, that’s just plain silly!” her father says: Norma Klein, Girls Can Be Anything (New York: Dutton, 1973), no page numbers.
“She was a very strong feminist,” said Fleissner: Telephone interview with Jennifer Fleissner, April 3, 2022.
“Here is Mother with her Planned Parenthood meetings”: Norma Klein, Hiding (New York: Pocket Books, 1976), p. 15.
She describes herself as “the silent, clinging, frightened one”: Ibid., p. 16.
“I was afraid of the potential for failure and humiliation”: Ibid., p. 35.
“Where are you when we make love?”: Ibid., p. 52.
“People say: Take off your mask,” Krii explains: Ibid., p. 80.
“I think she wanted to take the pleasure of girls seriously”: JF to RB, April 3, 2022.
“sometimes fear[s] that my husband and I will be hauled off”: Norma Klein, “Growing Up Human: The Case for Sexuality in Children’s Books,” Children’s Literature in Education, 1977, pp. 77–84.
In 1979, when Judy was still living in Santa Fe, Klein wrote her a long letter: Box 25 of the Judy Blume Papers at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Accessed May 11, 2022.
“It’s funny, she could be very shy with people that she didn’t know”: JF to RB, April 3, 2022.
“In New York girls like me are a dime a dozen”: Norma Klein, It’s OK if You Don’t Love Me (New York: Fawcett Juniper, 1977), p. 16.
“That’s okay. I’m not sure I’m in love with you,” Jody says: Ibid., p. 98.
“First, most of the boys couldn’t believe that there was a boy”: Ibid., p. 107.
