Just So Stories

Scribe Publications

March 2026

ISBN: 9781761380686

RRP: AUD$39.99

It’s a brilliant biography of one of the most notable, enduring, revered and ground-breaking writers, particularly of kid and teen fiction, and, as you might expect, quite a behemoth to cover the almost 90 years of Judy Blume’s life. It took me almost a week of night reading and while I actually finished it a couple of weeks ago, I needed to let it sit a while.

Although, I think it’s fair to say, Judy is not held in Australia with the same almost mythic status she’s enjoyed in the US, there is no doubt that her place in the canon of children’s literature here is firmly cemented. Over my 25 years actively in libraries I have lost count of how many Year 4 classes have shared Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing, or Year 3 classes with Blubber. Likewise, the legion of readers of Are You There, God? It’s me, Margaret. – I think, for me, this is the one that really fixed Judy firmly in my sights – and the recent Netflix adaptation finally did it true justice.

Mark Oppenheimer, a long-time admirer of Judy’s work as well as being a journalist and historian, has done an extraordinary job capturing the many threads of Judy’s life from her 1940s upbringing in a middle-class American Jewish family to her long-lasting third marriage with all the many travails, bumps, detours, highlights, low points, successes, accolades, censorship and controversy that she has attracted in nine decades.

At the same time, he has diligently uncovered her personality, sometimes prickly, sometimes private but other times generous, giving and gracious, with such respectful honesty that the reader truly begins to feel as if we know this woman, with all her many facets.

In a period when realism in young people’s literature was just tentatively dipping toes in to the public consciousness, Judy fearlessly laid out the trials and tribulations that make up the lives of tweens and teens with no holds barred but always with an innate sensitivity as well.

Many women even now will hold books like Margaret and Forever dearly, as they recall reading these – as a tween and then a teen – and uncovering mysteries that were often not easily shared in families or society at the time they were written. Consider Margaret alone – 1970 – almost sixty years ago!! A book with mixed religion parents raising their daughter without religion, a book that discussed puberty in terms that all the avid readers not only ate up but digested, processed and from which they gained wholesome nourishment. Judy’s insertion of levity makes it all the more memorable and, especially, bringing the bust exercise into our common vernacular!

For any of those who have read Judy’s books, with fond memories even now, or even those who are keen children’s literature aficionados looking to find out more on how this woman achieved such extraordinary heights from a suburban housefrau and mother of two to a living legend for so many, this is a must-read. Do yourself a favour and set aside some serious reading time for this one. You won’t regret it, I promise. It’s hand down a 5 👧👧👧👧👧 from me.

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