MOLLY RINGWALD AND MARK OPPENHEIMER AT TORONTO REFERENCE LIBRARY FOR "JUDY BLUME, A LIFE"

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]You're my Judy Blume.

[00:00:01]I love you. You're amazing tonight.

[00:00:02]Thank you.

[00:00:12]My deepest condolences.

[00:00:15]>> [applause] >> Hello.

[00:00:24]You know, though my parents did I got great parents, but they didn't feel comfortable talking about a lot of the stuff that Judy put in her books. New York City, a lot of emails back and forth, a lot of texts, a lot of phone calls. There was a period of time where we had an hour set aside every week where I would just ask her stuff. And of course eventually I kind of knew more and more and the questions got more and more specific.

[00:00:45]You know, at the very beginning it was tell me about high school. And by the end it was tell me 1978 did you and George have dinner at this restaurant in the village or in this you know, this restaurant?

[00:00:56]>> And every time you're remembering something, you're remembering a memory.

[00:01:01]So it's like it's like memory getting Xeroxed and Xeroxed and Xeroxed. I did a talk with Judy for her last book in San Francisco.

[00:01:10]And I was so starstruck. I mean, I became that little kid in fourth grade looking at the back of the book, looking at her picture and thinking Oh my goodness, I can't imagine if my mom looked like that, you know. I mean, my mom's beautiful and I love her, but like Judy Blume just seems so glamorous Right. to me. And and I think the the first book that I read was the one that was the most autobiographical, the Sally J. Freedman story.

[00:01:39]that Judy is um she's an extroverted person, um but but writes incredibly not introverted, but interior books.

[00:01:52]Yeah.

[00:01:53]You know, that that that are exactly what people our age were feeling. And I I just don't know that anybody else has done that. Her books are still one of the most banned books, right?

[00:02:05]Right, which is a testament to the fact that they're widely read. Yeah. I mean, if you Well, there's no greater way to get kids to read books than to ban them.

[00:02:13]I mean, are they ever going to get that?

[00:02:16]Really? You know, the US, let's say, I'm not going to speak for Canada, but that has such a hang-up >> [clears throat] >> teaching kids about sex. I mean, isn't this something that kids are supposed to learn about? Aren't they supposed to learn about their own bodies? You know, uh but but there there is an an incredible uh aversion, it seems, to that.

[00:02:37]Um and I and I thought that it was that we were done with that. I thought that I was going to be able to say, "Oh, that was just my generation." And now it seems like it's It's always been. It's Yeah, and they're always going to learn about it, but but if they don't learn about it in in a healthy way, they're going to learn about it in a in a in a different way.