Blume, Judy. (1975). Forever … . Scarsdale, N.Y.: Bradbury Press.

Genre: Romance / realistic fiction

Intended audience: Older teens, especially girls

Personal reaction to the book: Steamy for its era and certainly for Blume’s traditional audience; it would be a relatively tame romance by contemporary adult standards (for instance, I just did a comparison of historical romance aka bodice-rippers for another class and they all have oral sex scenes, often fairly graphic ones). Blume is a talented author, so it is certainly well-crafted, and the ending was a surprise in that the girl broke off the romance instead of the boy. The title word has lost a little of its punch with the semi-ironic use of BFF today.

Author facts: Judy Blume is a 1961 graduate of N.Y.U. and one of the most accomplished children’s authors of her generation. She is an advocate against censorship and banning of books since her own run-ins with censors in the early 1980s. She has been given lifetime honors by, among others, the American Library Association and the Library of Congress.

Related website: http://www.judyblume.com