A s a child, Judy Blume wished to become something exciting when she grew up, such as an actress or artist. With her amazing ability to remember the details of her childhood and to get inside the characters that she creates, it is no wonder that she became a writer, one of the most popular of her generation.

She was born on February 12, 1938 and raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Her mother, Esther Rosenfeld Sussman, was a traditional homemaker with a passion for reading books. Her father, Rudolph Sussman, was a dentist. He was also "a bit of a philosopher" who enjoyed sharing ideas, fantasies, and game- playing with Judy and her older brother, David, and taught her to think for herself.

When she was in the third grade, she spent the school year in Miami Beach, Florida, with her mother and David, who was...