Forever...

As a young girl, I never read Judy Blume so I am making up for it in my 40s. Love how her writings hold strong through time. The simplicity of her writing with lessons on life.

Very entertaining and relatable characters- yet elements of new aged dramas.

Just read this classic for the first time. Judy Blume really gets it. Life, that is. Every teen should read this.

I know this was written in the 70’s but I really dislike all of the fat and body shaming in this book. Especially of the character Sybil. They are brutal when they talk about her and it makes me not able to enjoy this book. If young people are reading this today, I hope they know that it is not ok.

I took my 9th grader to a banned books week activity at our school library this past week. Forever came up on the top 25 most banned and challenged books list. I was inspired to give it a whirl. I felt like it was a realist look at first love and first sexual relationships. It felt true and took me back in time. I thought it was important that the protagonist took control and responsibility of her own sexual health, and she had parents and friends to support her along the way. Additionally, Blume wrote an updated forward to expand the definition of sexual health for young people today.