The Beloved Judy Blume

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

**Josh** (0:11)
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck. And it's just us, Jerry's on vacation actually, as usual.

**Chuck** (0:22)
Have you read any Judy Blume books?

**Josh** (0:26)
Yes, I've read a bunch of them. I was going down the list checking off the ones I've read.

**Chuck** (0:29)
Wow, interesting, me too. I had a feeling you hadn't for some reason.

**Josh** (0:33)
Because I'm soulless and robotic? No.

**Chuck** (0:39)
Yeah, I bet you we've read a lot of the same one, so let's go over that.

**Josh** (0:42)
I bet too. Oh, right now? Okay, you ready? Yeah. We'll say them all at the same time.

**Chuck** (0:47)
No, you say yours, and I'll say whether that's one of mine.

**Josh** (0:50)
All right. Freckled Juice?

**Chuck** (0:52)
Did not read that one.

**Josh** (0:53)
I did. It was a good one.
I'm going to say that about all of them. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing?

**Chuck** (0:58)
I did read that.

**Josh** (1:00)
I did too, but I didn't remember what that one's about, and I didn't go look it up.

**Chuck** (1:04)
Okay.

**Josh** (1:05)
Otherwise known as Sheila the Great.

**Chuck** (1:07)
I read that.

**Josh** (1:08)
That was a good one. Blubber is the one, aside from Are You There, God, It's Me, Margaret, that I remember the most.

**Chuck** (1:14)
Yeah, I read both of those.

**Josh** (1:16)
And then I think that was it for me.

**Chuck** (1:19)
All right, I think I read all of the, I read Then Again Maybe I Won't.

**Josh** (1:23)
Okay.

**Chuck** (1:24)
And I also read Superfudge.

**Josh** (1:28)
Oh, I did too, I'm sorry, I did too. I read Superfudge.

**Chuck** (1:31)
Yeah. So I think I read six or seven of these.

**Josh** (1:34)
And I had a question mark next to Then Again Maybe I Won't. I may have read that one, or I just may have been aware of it.

**Chuck** (1:40)
Yeah, and then the one, what is it, Tiger Eyes?
Sounded familiar, but I'm not sure if I read those. But I think one reason I wanted to ask, because I think Judy Blume and her books get associated with young girls.

**Josh** (1:52)
Sure.

**Chuck** (1:53)
And I was like, was I an outlier, because I read six or seven Judy Blume books and I loved them all or maybe we're both outliers.

**Josh** (2:01)
I don't think so. I don't remember being particularly odd or weird, at least in my elementary school. So the fact that you did too, I would guess it was probably fairly normal. I also read a lot of Ramona Quimby books. Did you read any of those?

**Chuck** (2:15)
No, I never read those.

**Josh** (2:16)
I knew the day I became an adolescent, I guess, because I was halfway through a Ramona Quimby book.

**Chuck** (2:23)
You're seven.

**Josh** (2:24)
And I realized I didn't give a good damn what was about to come next in Ramona Quimby's life all of a sudden.

**Chuck** (2:32)
Oh no.

**Josh** (2:34)
And that was it for me and Ramona. I always have fond memories of her. Those were great, fun books.

**Chuck** (2:39)
Yeah, well, I think it's cool that we both read this stuff. Our parents were, and my suspicion is that it was the same in my house, is that they weren't paying attention enough, probably, to say, hey, should you be reading this book about a young girl going through menstruation and discovering her sexual awakening?

**Josh** (2:57)
Right, exactly. My parents paid enough attention. I remember my dad, like some tense conversations I barely overheard. The only word I could make out was fruity.

**Chuck** (3:07)
Oh man, goodness me.

**Josh** (3:09)
He was a real jerk growing up.

**Chuck** (3:11)
Yeah, well, here we are though. Well adjusted and kicking butt in life.

**Josh** (3:16)
Yeah, you know what's great is I can't wait to get the one or two emails where they're like, oh, that was really mean of your dad to call you fruity.

**Chuck** (3:22)
Right, yeah, get some support.

**Josh** (3:25)
Right.
He didn't really, everybody is what I'm trying to say. I think you make a great point though, Chuck. I think it's, whether it's normal or not, I feel like it was great that we read those books. They were great books to start with.

**Chuck** (3:39)
Totally.

**Josh** (3:39)
But also, it's just so rare for an adult to have that level of insight into what it's like to be a kid growing into, well, an adolescent again, right? That's just, people have memories of that. I have memories of it, but the vibe, the feeling, and being able to convey it again, that is long gone.