Judy Blume

American writer of juvenile fiction, a natural-born storyteller. Orphaned by her dad's death when she was young, she attended an all-girl's public high school and studied modern dance and ballet until her junior year at college in 1959. At that time she married a professional man with whom she had two kids. A bored suburbanite, she began to write and sell her short stories.

Her first big hit was in 1970 when she published her third book, "Are You There God? It's me, Margaret." In 1993, she published her 21st book. Her works include "Then Again, Maybe I Won't," 1971 "Forever," 1976 and "Wifey," 1978, selling, altogether, 65 million copies in 16 different languages. A phenomenon in the publishing world, Blume published her first adult novel in 14 years, "Summer Sisters" in 1998.

Her correspondence is so voluminous that it takes a full-time secretary to take care of it. "Letters to Judy: What Kids Wish They Could Tell You" ranks among her most popular works, a self-help guide for parents who blush at the mere idea of their preteens actually possessing hormones.

For her service to children's literature and to the cause of sexual awareness in general, Blume has been honored by the Authors' Guild Council, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, among others. In 1984, she received the Carl Sandburg Freedom to Read Award from the Chicago Public Library, one of the many library groups to single out her contributions to literature. For millions of 8-to-12-year old readers, especially girls, the first books they sit down and read cover-to-cover, for pleasure, are Blume's.

Her detractors are present of course, those who find the subject of adolescent sexuality offensive and inappropriate for young readers. Where books are banned, hers are included in the same list as "Catcher in the Rye." When the Reagan administration ushered in a backlash against the liberal trends of the '60s, the attacks intensified, and again peaked at the time of Newt Gingrich's rhetoric in 1994.