Kathryn's Inbox

It's difficult to find a word that accurately describes this children's book. Although in many ways the words nice or sweet would be fitting, both words are often used to describe books in a way that is condescending, as if to say that it was a good story, but something was lacking. And there is nothing lacking about Iggie's House. This is a great book, about the lessons eleven year old Winnie learns when a new family moves into her neighbourhood.  The novel opens with Winnie eagerly awaiting the arrival of her new neighbours. She is sad and lonely. It is the beginning of summer. Her brother is away at camp and worse still, Iggie, her best friend in the whole world has moved away. Iggie and her parents have promised that Winnie will get a surprise when she discovers who has bought their house. And sure enough, Winnie is very excited to learn that three new kids will be moving into the house, including two boys who are both close to her own age. The only catch is thi...

About six months or so ago, a regular customer at my workplace and I got talking about Judy Blume. He  confessed that as a preteen one of his favourite novels was Are You There God? It's Me Margaret and that he had been somewhat fascinated by reading an account of puberty from the perspective of a girl. Unsurprisingly, he laughed quite a bit when I told him that when I was thirteen one of my favourite novels was Then Again, Maybe I Wont, another Judy Blume novel which is an account of puberty through the eyes of a boy. I wonder if this was, perhaps, deliberate on behalf of the author. Or if we both just simply have a morbid curiosity about the other gender. (I'm leaning toward the former.) Speculation aside, Are You There God? It's Me Margaret  tells the story of a girl, eleven, going on twelve, who wants desperately to grow up (or at least wear a bra and get her first period,) be accepted by her peers and work out what her religious beliefs and affilia...

This next post is devoted to one of my all time favourite authors of books for children and young adults, Judy Blume. Like many kids of my generation, I more or less grew up reading Judy Blume. When I was nine, I giggled at Fudge and felt sorry for his poor, suffering older brother Peter. When I was eleven, I understood only too well the world of female bullying that was so accurately and honestly depicted in Blubber . When I was thirteen, I read  Then Again Maybe I Won't from cover to cover several times and took comfort in the fact that boys had to go through puberty as well. When I was fifteen  Forever offered me a far more honest and accurate account of teenage relationships than what sex education classes or the pages of Dolly magazine ever could. And that's not even mentioning the personal impact many of her other wonderful novels had on me-- Iggy's House , Starring Sally J. Freeman as Herself , Are You There God? It's Me Margaret ,  It's Not the End of th...