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☆ Documentary Download: 3 Celebrity Portraits Worth Your Time
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-02 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Pop open the “documentaries” section of your friendly local streaming service, and a bevy of movies about celebrities will greet you. Rockers, politicians, artists, authors, athletes — increasingly everyone you’ve heard of has a documentary, and probably served as a producer on it, too. The appeal of such films is obvious: If you like someone already, you get to hear them talk about themselves. If you know you should like someone, then you’ve got a quick introduction to set you on your way to fandom. The best of these movies tend to do more than tell us about the subject — they tell us what the subject means, in a cultural sense.

Persons: —, you’ve, “ Dario Argento Panico, Bruce Springsteen, Lionel Richie, won’t, “ Dario Argento, Guillermo del Toro, it’s, Judy Blume, ” Organizations: Netflix

NEW YORK (AP) — One of the world’s largest and most influential publishers, Simon & Schuster, celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. The list tells many stories, through the books selected, not selected, and the evolution of what has been highlighted. “A group of Simon & Schuster staffers took on the daunting challenge of selecting 100 titles from our history that are believed to best represent the breadth and depth of the company’s publishing program, across imprints,” the publisher announced Wednesday. “That book actually had an influence on the course of events.”Like many leading publishers, Simon & Schuster began as an independently owned company and vastly expanded after the 1960s. Along the way, Simon & Schuster acquired numerous other publishers, whose books are now part of the S&S catalog and its centennial list.

Persons: Simon & Schuster, Simon, Gregory Hartswick, Prosper Buranelli, Margaret Petherbridge, Richard Simon, Max Schuster, ”, Schuster, Jonathan Karp, Sloan, veteran’s, Karp, “, — Ralph Ellison, Maya Angelou, Richard Wright, Harper, James Baldwin, Alex Haley, Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison, ” Karp, Ntozake Shange’s, Jenny Han’s “, ” Carlos Eire’s “, ” Siddhartha Mukherjee's “, ” Jason Reynolds ’, Safiya, Wendy Sherwin, didn’t, John Irving, Bruce Springsteen’s, Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Pulitzer, Franklin, Eleanor Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, Rivals ’, Barack Obama’s, Hillary Clinton, Scott Fitzgerald’s “, ” Ernest Hemingway’s “, Alan Paton’s “, Scribner, Judy Blume’s “, Margaret ”, Walter Isaacson’s “ Steve Jobs, Frederick Backman's, Ove, Dale Carnegie’s, Leon Shimkin, David McCullough's, Wright, Blume, Woodward Organizations: Simon &, New York, HarperCollins, Dial Press, Doubleday, Knopf, “, Rivals, KKR, Win, Carnegie Locations: ”, Snow, Havana

NEW YORK (AP) — Lorrie Moore, Naomi Klein and the Egyptian writer Ahmed Naji are among the finalists for National Book Critics Circle awards. Honorary prizes are going to Judy Blume and to a longtime ally of Blume's in the fight against book bans, the American Library Association. On Thursday, the critics circle announced nominees in seven competitive categories, ranging from fiction to debut book to best translation. The other fiction nominees are Justin Torres' “Blackouts,” winner of the National Book Award last fall; Teju Cole's “Tremor,” Daniel Mason's “North Woods”; and Marie NDiaye's “Vengeance Is Mine,” translated from the French by Jordan Stump. The book critics circle, founded in 1974, consists of hundreds of reviewers and editors from around the country.

Persons: — Lorrie Moore, Naomi Klein, Ahmed Naji, Judy Blume, Blume's, Moore, “, Justin Torres, ” Daniel Mason's “, Marie NDiaye's, Jordan Stump, Grace E, Tina Post's, ” Nicholas Dames, ”, Myriam Gurba's, Naji, Katharine Halls, Matthew Zapruder's “, ” Susan Kiyo Ito's, David Mas, Patricia Wakida, Jonathan Coe's Martin Luther King, Gregg Hecimovich, Hannah Crafts, Anna, Rachel Shteir's, Betty Friedan, Jonny Steinberg's, Winnie, Nelson, Saskia Hamilton's “, ” Kim Hyesoon's, ” Romeo Oriogun's, Robyn Schiff's, Kareem Abdulrahman, Natascha Bruce, Dorothy Tse's ”, Don Mee, Kim Hyesoon's, ” Todd, ” Maureen Freely’s, Tiffany, Indonesian Norman Erikson Pasaribu's, John Leonard, Ariana Benson's, ” Emilie Boone's, ” Victor Heringer's “, ” Tahir Hamut Izgil's, Donovan X, Martin J, Siegel's, Blume, Becca Rothfield, Marion Winik Organizations: American Library Association, Rotten, PEN America, U.S, Washington Locations: Egypt, Indonesian

☆ 10 of the best and 10 of the worst movies that came out last year
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( Meghan Cook | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

It’s Me, Margaret” a winning adaptation. Rachel McAdams and Abby Ryder Fortson in "Are You There, God? Dana Hawley/LionsgateRotten Tomatoes: 99%Summary: Based on the book by Judy Blume, "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret'' follows Margaret Simon (Abby Ryder Fortson) as she grapples with her changing relationship with religion, adolescence, and her mom (Rachel McAdams). Critics said the Blume adaptation was the sleeper hit of the year.

Persons: Margaret ”, Rachel McAdams, Abby Ryder Fortson, Margaret, Dana Hawley, Judy Blume, Margaret ', Margaret Simon, Critics, Blume Organizations: Lionsgate

☆ For John Green, the Battle Over Access to Books Has Gotten Personal
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Alexandra Alter | More About Alexandra Alter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For about as long as he’s been a published author, John Green has faced efforts to censor his books. His debut novel, “Looking for Alaska,” a coming-of-age story that includes references to drug use and sex, has been challenged in schools for at least 15 years, and has frequently landed on the American Library Association’s most banned books list. Last year, it received more than 50 challenges in schools across the country. But a recent dust-up over whether his books are appropriate for teens feels more personal, and like an escalation of a growing movement to ban and restrict access to books, Green said. A public library in his home state of Indiana implemented a new policy earlier this year requiring library staff to remove any books with sexually explicit content from the children’s and teens section and re-shelve them in the adult collection.

Persons: John Green, Green, Judy Blume, Laurie Halse Anderson, ” Organizations: American, Hamilton East Public Library Locations: Alaska, ”, Indiana, Indianapolis

☆ ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’ Arrives
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If you ask any kids who grew up reading Judy Blume, they’ll tell you precisely what they learned from each of Blume’s books; which taboo rites of passage each book introduced; probably even where they were, physically and developmentally, when they first stumbled on this information. They might very well remember the precise page number of the paperback that was passed around middle school on which the most eye-opening passages appeared. I recently reread her classic, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” in advance of seeing the film adaptation that opens this week, 52 years after the book’s publication. In my memory, “Margaret” was chiefly about puberty, specifically about getting your period for the first time.

☆ Judy Blume’s Classic Hits Screens 50 Years Later. Luckily, Puberty Is Still Awkward.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Ellen Gamerman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

It’s Me, Margaret,’ Margaret and her friends navigate the perils of tweendom. Photo: Lions Gate/Courtesy Everett CollectionIt was an intimate day on the set of “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” the first movie adaptation of one of American publishing’s defining coming-of-age novels. The scene involved the title character putting a sanitary pad in her underwear for the first time. “This whole time,” a middle-aged man in the crew confided to the director, “I thought the sticky side went up.”

☆ ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’ Review: A Candid Kids’ Classic Comes to the Screen
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Can people under 40 even conceive of an American culture that wasn’t obsessively focused on youth? In the early ’70s, when Judy Blume ’s heartfelt coming-of-age novel “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” hit shelves, stories for youngsters based in everyday realism were rare. A sixth-grader, Ms. Blume’s diffident, self-conscious heroine anxiously asks God about her many worries, which include not yet having developed breasts nor experienced her first period. This level of frankness was nearly revolutionary at the time, and so the book was treasured as tweener samizdat.

☆ Why ‘Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret’ Still Matters
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Elisabeth Egan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When I arrived at the Crosby Street Hotel for a screening of “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret?,” a man in the lobby located my name on a list, then directed me to a line for the coat check. Mine said, “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Elisabeth.”Unfortunately, I’d stopped reading the invitation after “Please join us for an afternoon with Judy Blume”; what more did I need to know? I was Margaret, too.

☆ ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’ Review: Periods and Question Marks
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Lisa Kennedy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It is 1970 and the almost-12-year-old Margaret Simon returns from summer camp to boxes strewn about her family’s jammed New York City apartment. Because she and her parents are moving to New Jersey, her grandmother blurts out before her folks can ease their only child into the news. And so begins the yearlong adventure at the heart of this pitch-perfect adaptation of the author Judy Blume’s “Are You There God? Rachel McAdams and Benny Safdie portray Margaret’s youthful parents, Barbara and Herb. Kathy Bates is Margaret’s paternal grandmother, Sylvia, of the aforementioned blurt.

☆ A Judy Blume Classic on Film and More: The Week in Reporter Reads
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At her first full-time job since leaving influencing, the erstwhile smoothie-bowl virtuoso Lee Tilghman stunned a new co-worker with her enthusiasm for the 9-to-5 grind. She had earned north of $300,000 a year — and then dropped more than 150,000 followers, her entire management team, and most of her savings to become an I.R.L. The corporate gig, as a social media director for a tech platform, was a revelation. “I could just show up to work and do work,” Ms. Tilghman said. Ms. Tilghman, 33, recalled the encounter late last month during a 90-minute, $40 Zoom workshop she held to guide other creators through the process of leaving influencing.

☆ ‘Judy Blume Forever’ Review: The Y.A. Author Who Went There First
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Claire Shaffer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

There are few living children’s authors who have connected as deeply to their readers as Judy Blume. That’s the argument of “Judy Blume Forever,” a new documentary from Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok that pays unwavering tribute to Blume and her imprint on young adult literature. It’s not uncommon to hear fans of Blume’s work say that reading her books felt as though she was speaking directly to them through the pages. This is thanks, in no small part, to her frank discussion of mature themes that, at the time she was writing, were considered unusual for what we now call Y.A. novels: adolescent sexuality, religion, disability, bullying, and — in many of her books — the unfair expectations of purity and obedience that parents and society place on children.

☆ The Best Book Judy Blume Ever Got as a Gift? ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover.’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

I’m about to start Rebecca Makkai’s “I Have Some Questions for You.” I just finished “Still Pictures,” by Janet Malcolm. Yesterday afternoon I read a graphic memoir, “Gender Queer,” by Maia Kobabe, the most banned book in the country right now. Books I’ve finished but still in the pile: “Ms. A train is good but how often am I on a train these days? So maybe the best place for reading is sitting on my balcony overlooking the ocean (I know, right?).

Neither could a fourth-grade teacher — or Judy Blume. It’s hard to fully grasp the enormous potential of ChatGPT, a new artificial intelligence chatbot released last month. We asked some experts on children’s writing to take our variation on the Turing test, live on a call with us. They were a fourth-grade teacher; a professional writing tutor; a Stanford education professor; and Judy Blume, the beloved children’s author. None of them could tell every time whether a child or a bot wrote the essay.

☆ Judy Blume’s ‘Forever’ is being made into a TV series for Netflix
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Lisa Respers France | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —A beloved teen novel is getting a Netflix adaptation. The streaming giant announced Thursday that Judy Blume’s popular 1975 novel “Forever” is being “reimagined” by writer/producer Mara Brock Akil for “a new generation.”“It’s an epic love story of two Black teens exploring romance and their identities through the awkward journey of being each other’s firsts,” according to a press release. Akil is best known for creating hits like “Girlfriends,” “The Game,” “Being Mary Jane” and “Love Is.”“Judy Blume’s ability to capture the real emotions we experience during the various rites of passage of our youth influenced my life choices and writing voice. I’m honored to reimagine one of my favorite books, ‘Forever,’” Akil said in a statement. The series does not yet have a target premiere date.

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