Forever is about that first love. It was eerily reminiscent of my first real relationship when I was 16. Though it was set in the late seventies I felt as if someone had recorded all the mistakes I made with my first "true love", changed the names and a few minor details and kicked out an incredibly relate able and enjoyable (in that painful yearning sort of way) little novel. The short book represents a "hot and heavy" high school romance. It is funny to read about that intense curiosity you experience when you are first starting to be in a physical relationship. It's hilariously awkward, but exciting. At first I thought it ended abruptly, but then I thought, "Oh, thats the point. Now I get it!" Kath knew they would be together forever, as I did when I was 16. It doesn't work out for her, and thankfully, it didn't work out for me either. If I think about too long I can see all the trailer park picnics and food stamp vouchers I missed out on.

I don't think I would feel comfortable recommending this book to a teen, though it is shelved in YA as well as general fiction. I don't believe you should censor what your child reads, but I do believe they should discover these books on their own. I would have read it at that age, but because I was living it. I don't think what we did then was wrong, I don't regret the choices I made, or when I made them, but not everyone follows that same path.

I do have to say that I love the way Judy Blume writes. It always takes me second to adjust when I start one of her titles, but I do appreciate the simple language and straightforward story lines. Summer Sisters is one of my favorite books, I would recommend Forever as well, but if I had to choose only one, it would be Summer Sisters and then Are You There, God? It's Me Margaret.