Judy Blume was born in February of 1938. She spent most of her childhood years in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Many of her stories take place here. Her father was a dentist, and her mother was a homemaker.     

    As a child, she never dreamed that she would become an author she wanted to be something more like a ballerina or detective. In her school years, she attended Battin High School and graduated with a B.S. in education from New York University. ("Judy Blume Biography", 2019).

    Judy has created stories her entire life from childhood when she played with paper dolls to today where she resides as an author with her husband in Key West, Florida and New York City. Blume states on her website that between the two of them they "have three grown children and one grandchild." (Blume, n.d.).

    The author has had numerous awards and many of her books have been New York Times bestsellers. In 2004, Judy earned the award of National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. She claimed to be speechless in her acceptance speech for this award. (National Book Foundation, 2016).

    Then, the author gained the  Library of Congress' Living Legends award in the year 2000. To add,  she was also given the E. B White Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the 2018 Carl Sandburg Literary Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation.

    Out of the numerous stories I have personally read from this author, I have three favorites. The first is The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo. This was also Blume's first book published in 1969. ("Judy Blume", 2020).

    The story is a wonderful, heart-warming story about a young boy finding himself for the first time. Freddie feels lonely and left-out in his family as he is the middle child. The story unfolds with Freddie participating in the school play. He is given the part of Green Kangaroo. Through twists and turns, the story tells of Freddie finding love for himself and seeing that others find him special too.