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Then there's Blubber, a book that seems more relevant than ever in the age of online taunting and MySpace suicides. Seriously, Lars von Trier couldn't have crafted a more harrowing tale of female suffering. The protagonist, Jill, is an average kid, a picky eater from Pennsylvania who is neither excessively kind nor cruel. Almost accidentally, she joins a ring of bullies who ritually torment a chubby girl named Linda. Instead of making Linda repulsive or saintly, Blume's victim is as ordinary as the girls who tease her. I didn't know whom to relate to as I read Blubber; I wanted to believe that I wasn't like Jill, but at the same time, Linda was infuriatingly weak. The book, unlike others written for girls my age, refused to tell me how to feel. And yet, looking back, it's rich with revealing symbolism. (In one scene, Linda comes to school dressed as Little Red Riding Hood. Out come the wolves, indeed.)

In fact, all of Blume's books are full of cinematic details. You have to wonder why no one's made a big-screen adaptation of Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself — a bracingly vivid story of a Jewish girl in postwar Florida — or Forever, an oft-banned tale of love and (virginity) loss. I imagine it's because these stories belong to young women. Real young women, not singing Disney cheerleaders, hair-flipping pop stars, or cartoonish socialites. ''Judy's girls'' are imperfect and unsure; they tend to vacillate maddeningly between outspokenness and passivity. Even physically beautiful characters (like the protagonist in Deenie) are outcasts somehow, stymied by the expectations of others. It's definitely not the stuff of Hollywood. But Judy Blume's bildungsromans are as sweeping and intense as anything we see on screen these days. They'd make great disaster movies, and anyone who's been a teenager knows that's not an overstatement.

Judy Blume: Share the random memories that have stuck with you on PopWatch


Posted Sep 25, 2008 | Published in issue #1014 Oct 03, 2008 | Order Article Reprints
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