false 4 0 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1982 Tue Jun 17 09:23:03 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 17 11:49:43 -0700 2008 didn't I learn from this book? Sheesh -- for a generation of girls raised in between the second and third waves of feminism, Judy Blume was nothing short of a Godsend. She answered all of the questions I was too afraid to ask, and my Baby Boomer mother was too self-involved to worry about what I was reading or what messages were therein contained. To say that she captured the zeitgeist of my generation is an understatement. Or maybe that's nostalgia talking. It has been -- gasp! -- 26 years since I read this book last...

I will say that the knowledge in the book -- while a bit outdated (with the "belts" and all) -- came in handy in later years when I found myself in a hospital after giving birth and the nurse handed me a belt and a sanitary napkin... if not for Blume, perhaps I'd have looked like an idiot in addition to feeling like one? :)]]>