Judy Blume Forever is a pretty solid documentary about the writer of some very famous and famously banned children’s books. For that reason alone, it should be watched.

I liked Judy Blume books way back when and thankfully I only read the more traumatic books (for a 10 year old boy) later in my early 20s (when it was probably creepy to do so). But I have a fondness for her stories, even if ten year old me actually rather hated Fudge. Ahem. Moving on.

The doc is pretty standard and very kind to Judy Blume, especially since she’s heavily interviewed in it. And she’s joined by some of her adult fans who have been writing to her since they were ten, a handful of celebrities (hi Molly Ringwald!), other banned book authors, and some of her new fans too (more ten year olds!).

It’s a pretty good documentary since it did what it needed to do: tell me something I didn’t know about Judy Blume. Maybe if I was an existing fan, it wouldn’t be quite so enlightening. But I’ve never Googled her or written her a fan letter so learning about her childhood, her first less successful books, her far more successful books, the controversy of her content (hello periods), and the book banning binge of the 1980s was quite interesting. And how everything circles around again with today’s book banning bonanza (you read banned books too? Fist in the air!)

Pretty good and informative doc with a few emotional moments when you think about all the kids who wrote to her. I learned something new and part of me now wants to hit Barnes ‘n Noble and pick up Always…

Score: 82