Judy Blume Books In Order

Publication Order of Fudge Books

Publication Order of BFF Books

Publication Order of Pain & The Great One Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Judy Blume is one of the popular authors from America who likes to write her books based on the young adult, and children’s fiction genres. She is particularly well known for her works including Margaret, Blubber, It’s Me, Deenie, etc. The books written by author Blume have been labeled as talismans by The New Yorker, that further states that they marked the passage of a significant female population of America from childhood to adolescence. Her debut book was published in the year 1969. She is considered to be among the initial few authors who wrote the young adult books with topics that are still considered to be taboo by some people. About that, she says that she always wanted to be honest with her writings. She even says that none of the adults were honest with her and therefore, she did not have the right information that she should have at the time of writing those novels. Author Blume is often praised by her readers for being frank and the way she addresses their anxieties and fear of teen sex, masturbation, birth control, menstruation, and death. There are a number of detractors in the literary world who wish to ban several books written by her. In fact, author Blume has been named among the most frequently challenged writers of the 21st century by The Library Association of America.

Despite getting mixed reviews from the critics, her books have sold more than 82 million copies all over the world and have been translated into as many as 32 foreign languages. For her dedicated contribution to the English literature, author Blume has been awarded with numerous prestigious honors and awards in her writing career. One of them is the Margaret Edwards Awards by ALA, which was given to her for writing excellent young adult novels. She is recognized by the Congress Living Legend Library and has received a National Book Foundation award in the year 2004 for her distinguished efforts to the American letters. Author Blume was born on February 12, 1938, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, The United States, as Judith Sussman. Her father, Ralph Sussman, was a dentist by profession while her mother, Esther Rosenfeld was a homemaker. Blume also has a brother named David, who is 5 years older than her. She was Jewish like her family. Author Blume used to love reading new stories and making up her own stories. She says that she used to send most of her days as a child developing numerous stories in her head. She completed her school education from the Battin High School in the year 1956 and then enrolled herself in the Boston University. After getting diagnosed with mononucleosis she had to terminate her studies after the first semester. However, she went on to graduate from the New York University in the year 1961 with her bachelor’s degree in the subject of Education. She recollects a memory from her childhood days when a total of 3 airplane crashes too place in her hometown. Around 118 people had died and her father helped to identify the remains of the unrecognizable dead bodies.

Author Blume says that she had buried the memories of that incident until she started writing her most recent novel titled ‘In The Unlikely Event’, which is largely set around those plane crashes. She maintains that she had always been an avid reader, but started writing only when her children started attending preschool. When she thought that she had achieved enough in the children’s fiction genre, she decided to shift her focus towards the young adult genre, often writing about reality and death. Till now, author Blume has received more than 90 awards in her literary career, including 3 lifetime achievement medals. One of the novels written by her titled ‘Tiger Eyes’ was adapted into a film and was directed by her son named Lawrence Blume. This film was released in the year 2012 and featured Willa Holland and Amy Jo Johnson in the lead roles of Davey and Gwen Wexler respectively. Throughout her writing career, author Blume has tried to advocate the organizations supporting intellectual freedom. When she was under attack by a banning campaign set against her in the year 1980, she started reaching out to all the teachers, writers, and librarians who were facing similar problems in their lives. Eventually, she was able to fight her battle and emerged as a winner.

The Fudge series written by Judy Blume consists of 5 books in total, published between the years 1972 and 2002. The debut book of the series is titled as ‘Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing’. It was published by the Berkley publishers in the year 1972. The plot of this book features the lead characters as Sheila Tubman, Fudge Hatcher, peter Hatcher, and Jimmy Fargo. This book is basically set in the New York City, New York, US. At the start of the story, it is shown that Peter Hatcher considers his life with his brother Fudge as a 4th grade nothing. He feels that Fudge never seems to be away from trouble as he also tries to carry out some or the other mischief. Sometimes, he likes to throw tantrums at a shoe store, tries to fly, and some other times, he smears mashed potatoes on Hamburger Heaven’s walls. Peter believes that Fudge is a 3 year old terror who somehow manages to get away with his mischief all the time. But, he begins to feel that he has had enough of his dirty tricks. When Fudge tries to walk off with Peter’s pet turtle called Dribble, he decides to teach him a lesson. Now, Peter begins to think how he can bring the attention of his parents towards Fudge so that they can help him change.

The second book in the Fudge series is titled as ‘Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great’. It was released by the Puffin Books in the year 1972. The story of this book features another important character named Sheila Tubman. She is depicted as trying to wonder who she really is, the witty, capable, and outgoing Sheila the great, or the one who likes to keep secrets from others and is afraid of spiders, dogs, darkness, and swimming. When she learns that her family is planning to spend the summer in the Tarrytown region, Sheila thinks that she is going to face her worst fears over there. The house that her family rents has a dog and on top of that, she is asked by her parents to learn swimming. In order to present herself as a fool, Sheila tries to pretend that she knows everything. However, she cannot fool her new best friend named Mouse Ellis. It turns out that Ellis is a dog lover and a champion swimmer. Sheila begins to think that it might take her a lot convince the Tarrytown kids that she is not what she presents herself to be.

2 Responses to “Judy Blume”

1. Dawn: 12 months ago

   I read so many Judy Blume books when I was a kid and I just saw the Judy Blume documentary on Amazon Prime and it made me was to buy these for my 11 year old. She will loved these. Thank you Judy Blume 🙂

   Reply
2. sean mairs: 3 years ago

   the books are, in my opinion 5 star!!!

   Reply