Generations of readers know Blume's work to be candid about matters of puberty and sexuality, so it's no surprise that Blume adopts a similar candor with regards to her own life. Because really, who better to give us an account of Blume's life than Blume herself?

Much of Judy Blume Forever is spent with Blume speaking directly into camera, telling us about her childhood, her marriages, and her journey to becoming the author we know and love today. (And thank you for getting rid of the distracting and totally unnecessary additional little sister, 'Tootsie.Judy Blume in 'Judy Blume Forever.' Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video There are definitely worse wastes of your time (c.f., South Park, Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Kudos also on having a network show (and a children's show nonetheless!) set in New York City rather than the cultural wasteland that is Southern California. I no longer watch any TV and I only caught an episode here and there, but as TV shows go this one was pretty decent and redeeming, especially contrasted with the downright depressing anti-humanism of the books. well, anything could have been an improvement over the books, but at least they appear to exercise some sort of sense now and then, and that is always welcome. So does Shiela she's gone from a completely facetious know-it-all to a girl next door who may be slightly bossy and nerdy yet is also earnest and serious-and appears to nurse some genuine affection for Peter.

He even has a generous side-he gave up his precious duck to console his poor plush-monkey-deprived little brother. Peter, for his part, is headstrong but less bitter, a vast improvement over the Peter of the books. There are enough cute moments that we get the idea that even Peter, in between bouts of annoyance, is somewhat charmed. Fudge is still an annoying little brother, but he's a witty and well-meaning kid-sure, he busted the antique table, but all he wanted was to wrestle with his brother and sure, he extorted money to buy his parents an anniversary present, but COME ON! He's a little kid. Fudge himself was a total brat Peter was a self-righteous and disrespectful pomp Shiela was, even from her own perspective, completely dishonest, pretentious and unconvincing the Hatchers were overindulgent dupes (and the mother quite possibly a tranq addict). Her 'Fudge' series suffered from another unforgivable flaw: lack of sympathetic characters (except, perhaps, for Jimmy Fargo and his father). Judy Blume has been oft-derided for her extremely pessimistic and hyperrealist (sometimes) conceptions of late childhood and early adolescence.

Superfudge by judy blume