Obviously not my REAL mom, but my writing mom. Even though I was a boy, Judy Blume’s books really helped me when I was a young teen trying to understand the world, especially the weird world of girls. Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret is a book that helped me really appreciate girls (and women) on a level I had never imagined.
And then there was the “boy” version – “Then Again, Maybe I Won’t” which I read about ten million times because it dealt with a lot of the stuff I was going through at that time in my life. Being an early middle schooler is rough, and these two books helped. They didn’t make middle school some sort of magical journey full of rainbows and unicorns, but they helped me understand what I was feeling and what (some) of the girls around me were feeling.
But, just like with my dad, just because I consider Judy Blume my writing “mom”, I do not try to copy her. From my writing mom I learned how important it is to talk to children like they are real people, with real problems, and big emotions. It is easy for us adults to make light of the things that kids are going through, but their tears and their laughs are just as real and valid as the tears and laughter of grownups.
So dad (Ray Bradbury) taught me how important childhood is and mom (Judy Blume) helped me learn how to navigate and understand it. Tomorrow we will meet my writing “aunt”!