This book, like many others written by Blume, has been banned in schools for themes deemed inappropriate for adolescents; in this case, talk about masturbation and sexuality. Deenie is on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000 at forty-sixth. This book is ground breaking. I know that it’s been banned many, many times and continues to be banned to this day. There are 4 mentions of masturbation of just a line or two at a time for most of them and one that is a little longer in the context of sex education class. I wish I’d read this when I was the right age. It would’ve cleared a lot of things up. I’m glad it exists. I too had the same diagnosis although mine was not severe enough to warrant a brace. I wonder though how I'd have felt if it had. An important topic is that of parents exhorting their children to take up professions that the parents feel that are suited for them, whether or not the children are amenable to the idea. Thelma justifies her insistence that Deenie pursue a modeling career and that Helen become a doctor or lawyer by saying that she just "wanted better" for her children.

Deenie – Judy Blume on the Web Deenie – Judy Blume on the Web

Showing the development from an uncaring child to one that understands pain is a useful tactic, but Deenie takes this so far as to be unbelievable. Her biting commentary and treatment of all those she sees as less than perfect left me squirming. Taken alone, Deenie’s comment that Old Lady Murray is “so ugly she makes me want to vomit” because of her curved spine could at least be dismissed as childish ignorance. It at least foreshadows her own condition. Wilmadeenie (a.k.a. Deenie) Fenner is your everyday pretty and entitled 13-year-old, plagued by the usual problems of the popular: friends, boys, cheerleadimg, and of course, outsiders to avoid. But most importantly, finally pass one of those damned modelling auditions, because all her mother's nagging is really annoying. Plus, she's weary of walking around with books on her head. I hate it when my mother brags about me and my sister. "Deenie's the beauty and Helen's the brain."

I was a good girl with a bad girl lurking inside,” Blume tells the film-makers. Born to a middle-class Jewish family, she toed a conventional line, wearing sweater sets and attending Sweet Sixteen parties and marrying her college sweetheart. It was while raising her own family in New Jersey that she began to write, a habit that did not earn the admiration of her neighbors or even her husband. He took a patronizing view of her efforts and appreciated that it was less expensive than a shopping habit. Harvey Grabowski— A ninth-grade student, and president of the student council. Janet also has a crush on him. Deenie is named after the character Natalie Wood played in Splendor in the Grass. The movie itself was mentioned in description in the book, though the name of the movie was not. Deenie is one of the Judy Blume books I didn't read as a kid, and I was absolutely in love with everything about this book. (She's named after Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass! Judy Blume never says the movie by name, but it's totally that one! [That's probably because you don't really want the target audience to look up a movie where the main character goes crazy because of sex, right?])

Deenie - Wikipedia

Helen Fenner— Deenie's older sister. Thelma exhorts her to keep up her grades, to the exclusion of all non-academic pursuits, in the hopes that she will eventually become a doctor or lawyer. When Deenie visits the hospital and is then X-rayed, her comments reflected my own experience as a child, from her hatred of the gown you have to wear to the feeling of time stretching out as you wait to be seen. While a minor point, this is admirable and shows the level of thought Blume put into the novel. A failed cheerleading audition gets Deenie sent to the doctor, where she's eventually diagnosed with scoliosis, doomed to wear a brace for the next four years. I say doomed, but it's mainly her mother getting needlessly excited over it, not that her ignorance isn't utterly painful and enraging to watch. At the same time, beyond Deenie's immediate bonus of getting to drop the modelling auditions, is the uncomfortable revelation that she is now one of the handicapped kids, that she's been avoiding all these years. Find sources: "Deenie"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( October 2015) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)

This book provides examples of:

Judy is a longtime advocate of intellectual freedom. Finding herself at the center of an organized book banning campaign in the 1980's she began to reach out to other writers, as well as teachers and librarians, who were under fire. Since then, she has worked tirelessly with the National Coalition Against Censorship to protect the freedom to read. She is the editor of Places I Never Meant To Be, Original Stories by Censored Writers.

Deenie - Wikiwand

The book wins because it's not focusing on a certain condition, but an unchangeable event that will make a kid feel even more different than they already do. It touches briefly upon (and it was amusing really) masturbation and questions about this as well. It shows how some people stand out as different due to conditions, but that everyone is still the same and to be treated well. The drive along the coastal highway to Key West, Fla., has become a literary pilgrimage of sorts. Many before me have made the trek to the southernmost spot in the continental U.S. – to a city closer to Cuba than Miami – to pay homage to Ernest Hemingway, who lived here in the 1930s.

Ages 8-12

My Beloved Smother: Thelma, hands down. She monitors everything that Deenie eats as well as criticizing her posture while making sure both Deenie and Helen are how she wants them to be ("Deenie's the beauty and Helen's the brain"). When Helen mentions trying out for the cheerleading squad, Thelma scolds her for the very notion, saying that Helen didn't need to be jumping around yelling cheers because of her brain. When Deenie is revealed to have tried out for cheerleading, Thelma scolds her for doing so as well, saying that if Deenie had made the team, she wouldn't have time for a modeling career. Books & Books, occupying a quiet corner in Key West’s historic district, is exactly what you think a bookstore owned by Judy Blume would be: amazing.

Deenie - Judy Blume - Google Books

Meanwhile, Helen has fallen in love with a boy named Joey, who works for the family’s business, a gas station. Thelma has Joey fired from the gas station because she sees that Helen has become preoccupied with him and is now distracted from her school work. She claims that Joey was let go because of the family’s doctors’ bills due,to Deenie’s scoliosis. This causes Deenie to become afraid that Helen will hate her because of that. Fortunately, Helen doesn’t blame Deenie and this causes them to become closer. I did not remember this book very well so I once again decided on listening to the story. I found the narration entertaining. Like all other Judy Blume books she does incorporate a mix of teenage issues within the story. I totally forgot about this one. Ms. Blume really was a pioneer for her day and quite brave for her time. This story also touches on sex and the dreaded...yup.... teenage masturbation.🫢 Deenie is diagnosed with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. What does Dr. Griffith, the scoliosis specialist, mean when he tells the Fenners that there’s “‘a strong familial tendency’”? (Chapter seven) Discuss her parents’ reaction to this information. How is assigning blame not helpful to Deenie?

Ages 6-8

This is the craziest, scariest time. It makes the eighties look like nothing compared to what’s going on now, because it’s coming from the government, it’s coming from legislators,” Blume says. “We live in a state with a governor who is just making everything really dreadful,” she says, when asked what she might say to the people in power. “I have a lot to say about this governor. I don’t know that saying it to him would make any difference at all.” She adds that it’s not just Ron DeSantis, but a wider U.S. problem. “Elected officials who are drunk with power and using their power in an evil way.” Midge Otonis— Another of Deenie's best friends. Physically larger than most of the other seventh grade students, she is self-conscious about her size and the fact that most boys ignore her because of it. Rachel McAdams as Barbara Simon and Abby Ryder Fortson as Margaret Simon in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Dana Hawley/Lionsgate Much of my memory of childhood is fuzzy, but I remember exactly where Margaret lived in my elementary school library: the shelf it was on and the spot on the carpet where I spent oodles of time, cross-legged, reading it. I’m not sure I have ever wanted to own a book so badly. I had very few books at home, mostly inherited from my big sisters. And the purse-strings were tight in my family. So I didn’t ask. Maybe I knew my parents would balk at buying a novel they thought I would just grow out of. Maybe I was afraid to ask them for this particular book. I was desperate, I needed a creative outlet. I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t,” she says. After publishing two books, she thought, “Okay, hmmm, now I know how to do this thing. Or I think I know how to do it. Now I’m just going to let it rip.”