I scored this at a thrift shop this weekend and I was so excited. I was paying for it and I'm telling the guy how excited I was. "These are actual letters written to JUDY BLUME!" I told him and he's like, "Who's Judy Blume?" My mouth dropped. "Are You There God It's Me Margaret?, Deenie, Blubber . . . you know Judy Blume!" Then again, I suppose Judy didn't have the same impact on guys she did on girls.

Anyway, my 11-yo daughter and I both LOVED this book. Some of the letters kids wrote to her were quite heartbreaking, some were funny. I'm going to read some of the letters to my older kids at the library in school next year and talk about Blume's books. She was such a groundbreaker in writing reality-based books for kids. ( )

This is a living Dear Mr. Henshaw. Judy Blume compiled it in a way that it addresses special subjects and she reflects on her own perspective of them. She does a great job of giving some good advice this way, but mostly she's stopping after a little frank analysis of what's at stake in each child's letter.Good if you like: mental health, serious children. I don't know how she does it because just one of these letters going unresolved would break my heart in dozens, but that's obviously the trade-off here for the reward of confidence. And she seems to have resolved them quite often. Even more heartbreaking than those begging to be answered because they don't know who else to turn to, are the kids who say, "Can you please write a book about my problem?" The faith and hope in that request.In the front, my copy has the inscription "To Lois, Thanks for being there to talk to. Love, Linda. 6/7/86," written two days after I turned four.Backstory disclosure: When I was about 10 I found this book in the children's section of the library and I took it home. I had a couple days of indulgence before my mother took it away, when I was about 3/4 through. She said that when I was 14 I could read it again, but of course I didn't. (I knew she would ultimately find it inappropriate, but that just made it more important to read; I am the girl who learned "The Truth About Santa Claus" by reading Parents Magazine in the bathroom.)What's interesting is that I still disagree with this directive, especially having read it all now -- not that I'm a parent, but I think I consider little kids differently than that. I know what really drew me to the book, since I used to try to protect myself and get smarter by learning about everything in detail, subjects way beyond my age or experience. It made me feel more like a person who was going to have a sound future, and less frightened of my own juvenile problems. Reading about the lives of adults or the abuses of history (I read Roots when I was 11), I knew better what was right to believe in and I guess I often needed that extra assurance.I wasn't reading about problems more extreme or more inappropriate than other things in my life because they were sensational -- well, that was only part of it, since at that age you're just learning what sensational is even like. But I definitely I was also reading because instinct told me knowledge was a kind of power, a defense, and if I knew what types of things I haven't experienced then maybe I will be a safer person, or a sturdier friend. I didn't think it in those ways when I was 10, but I knew I was drawn to something so helpful for an important reason.Probably I should also have read more issue-directed Judy Blume novels for help with this, but that is another issue. And, there are many times Judy addresses kids directly in this book -- she knew we would want to read what she said about us. As she says in one section, "What kids imagine is usually worse than the truth, so instead of hiding the facts from them, talk to them." What I didn't talk about, I'd read about, and I definitely did so because it made me feel better. She says of a situation with her own mother: "'I didn't want to frighten you,' she said. But there is nothing more frightening than not knowing."This book is out of print now, but I recommend it highly. It can be found for pennies on Half.com or Amazon, and most likely, still in the children's section of the library. ( )