Judy Blume books with good kissing scenes

In 1980, when I was in grade six at Queen Mary public school in Peterborough, Ontario there were two kinds of Judy Blume books. The ones you could check out of the school library. And the ones you got from the older girls. This is how I happened to read Wifey (1978) at age eleven, which I knew, even back then, was a very funny book. It didn’t have any good kissing scenes in it though. According to the heroine, Sandy, her husband, Norman, gave kisses that tasted like Colgate toothpaste, and her former boyfriend, Shep, kisses that tasted like salad dressing, and the latter were better than the former. I didn’t get it. I did understand the kiss Margaret Simon got from Philip Leroy, however, in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (1970). There wasn’t a lot of detail, but I knew it happened in a darkened bathroom in a finished basement at a dress-up party and that Margaret was wearing a dress she called “her velvet.”

This is an annotated bibliography of the five Judy Blume books with the most memorable kissing scenes. I recommend that you read it after taking a look at two other bibliographies I have posted here on Medium, “Read some Judy Blume books” and “The Judy Blume story.” I also recommend that you see the movie version of Tiger Eyes (2012), which has what I think is the best Judy Blume kiss of all time when new friends Davey Wexler and Wolf Ortiz finally kiss after weeks of flirtation and soulful talks on a snowy New Mexican night. It doesn’t exist in the book version. But neither does a scene where Davey masturbates thinking about Wolf, which, rumor has it, got cut from the original manuscript. The books below are listed in the order they were published. All of these books were written for middle-grade and/or young adults, except Smart Women (1983), which could stand as a young adult book on its own if you pull out the chapters told from Sara and Michelle’s perspectives.

Blume, Judy. 1973. Deenie.

Deenie Fenner starts to see herself very differently after being diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 13 and learns she will have to wear a clunky, body-altering back brace until the end of her growth spurt, around the age of 17. This news devastates her mother, who since Deenie’s babyhood has been plotting to make Deenie a star, dragging her around to modeling agencies in Manhattan practically every weekend since Deenie started junior high. But for Deenie, even though she is scared to have scoliosis, the brace gives her a new sense of freedom in both her body and her sense of self. She lets herself get mad, not just at her scoliosis and brace, but also at her mother’s expectations of her, and defiantly chops short all of her long modelesque hair. And then, a few days later, when she has to go back to school for the first time, short-haired and wearing her brace, she brushes off questions about how her body and looks have changed and boldly flirts with an older boy she likes, Buddy Brader, who, in turn, flirts back. By the end of the book, he will become Deenie’s first and second real kiss. Written in the first person from Deenie’s perspective, Deenie tells us early on in the book that she has been named by her mother for a character in a movie and that she sees a lot of similarities between herself and her fictional namesake. Judy leaves the film unnamed, but it is Splendor in the Grass (1961) and the character is Deanie Loomis played by Natalie Wood (1938–1981). For other Judy Blume books written in the first person, see my annotations on Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (1970), Then Again, Maybe I Won’t (1970) and It’s Not The End of the World (1972) here, and Tiger Eyes (1981), here. For extended recaps of this novel, as well as dramatic readings of dialogue with music and soundscapes, listen to the multi-episode arcs released in 2017 by The Blume Saloon podcast, produced and narrated by Alison Michaels and Jody Worthington. For a literary critique of this novel, listen to Allie Hoff Kosick’s SSR podcast with Hayley Krischer, Episode 165.

Blume Judy. 1975. Forever.

Katherine Danzinger falls in love with a boy named Michael during the winter of her senior year of high school and although they pledge to stay together forever, she breaks up with him in the late summer just before leaving for college. The two meet at a New Year’s Eve Party, start dating every Friday and Saturday night, go away for one ski weekend together, and then start having sex. Katherine gets good advice from her mom, grandmother, and Planned Parenthood about not losing herself in the relationship and taking care to protect herself against pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and heartbreak, in that order. But by the end of the book, while she is working as an assistant tennis instructor at an arts camp, she just falls out of love with Michael and becomes interested in someone else, a college sophomore named Theo. There are many kissing scenes between Katherine and Michael in Forever (1975), many of which lead to much racier stuff. But by far the best kissing scene is the one that is only hinted at, when, a little while after her break up with Michael, Katherine comes home to a phone message that Theo has called. Written in the first person from Katherine’s perspective, there are two other important storylines in Forever (1975) that happen alongside Katherine and Michael’s love story. Katherine’s best friend Erica tries turning her friendship with Michael’s best friend Artie into a sexual affair even though Artie thinks he might be gay. And Erica’s cousin Sybil gets pregnant and then secretly carries the baby to term as an experience for herself, ultimately giving up the baby for adoption. For extended recaps of this novel, as well as dramatic readings of dialogue with music and soundscapes, listen to the multi-episode arcs released in 2018 by The Blume Saloon podcast, produced and narrated by Alison Michaels and Jody Worthington. They also did a great recap of the hard-to-find TV movie version of Forever (1978) here. For some stray clips of the TV movie version of Forever (1978) click here and here. For a literary critique of this novel, listen to Allie Hoff Kosick’s SSR podcast with Emily Edwards, Episode 75.

Blume Judy. 1983. Smart Women.

Margo Sampson, an architect, and B.B. Brady-Broder, a realtor, are friendly acquaintances connected by their mutual best friend Claire, all three of them raising their kids in Boulder, Colorado. Margo falls in love at first sight with Andrew, B.B.’s former husband, who has moved to Boulder from Miami to spend the school year with his and B.B.’s 12-year-old daughter, Sara and within a few months Andrew moves in with Margo, totally blindsiding B.B. and disrupting the delicate household balance Margo has established with her teenaged kids, Stuart and Michelle, since her divorce four years before. Sara, Stuart, and Michelle all eventually adjust to Margo and Andrew’s new living situation, but B.B. becomes consumed by the anger and grief she has been keeping bottled up for the past six years about a severe car accident Andrew had while they were still married, which killed their only son, Sara’s older brother Bobby. Told from the perspectives of Margo, B.B., Sara, and Michelle, Smart Women (1983) has a lot of flirting, kissing, and sex scenes between Margo and Andrew. But, like in Forever (1975), the best kissing scenes in this book are only implied when Margo’s 16-year-old daughter Michelle has her first sexual relationship with a very cute 21-year-old guy named Eric, who, unbeknownst to Michelle, had originally shown up in Boulder to rekindle an affair he had with her mother Margo the summer before, a couple of weeks before Margo meets Andrew. Special note to Judy: Please write a book told from the perspective of Sara’s best friend Jennifer, a book about Michelle and Eric’s spring fling, and/or a multi-perspective Smart Women sequel narrated by Sara, Michelle, and Claire’s daughter Puffin. We need them.

Blume Judy. 1987. Just as Long as We’re Together.

Stephanie Hirsch meets Alison Monceau on the last night of summer and introduces her to her best friend of five years, Rachel Robinson the very next day when all three of them start seventh grade. At first, it is just a matter of circumstance and logistics. Stephanie and Alison wind up in the same homeroom, and Rachel, a total pre-teen prodigy, is busy winning a spot on the junior high debating team and in the state-wide youth orchestra. But soon it becomes obvious to everyone, except, perhaps, Stephanie, that she and Alison have way more in common than she and Rachel seem to have anymore, especially after she and Rachel have an epic fight over both her and Rachel keeping secrets from one another. Stephanie hasn’t told Rachel that her parents have separated and Rachel hasn’t told Stephanie that she has been moved into an advanced ninth-grade math class giving her close proximity to Jeremy Kravitz, the cutest boy in their school. Stephanie gets her first kiss from her classmate Peter Klaff under a starry Connecticut night sky on her 13th birthday at her school’s Groundhog Day Dance, which is the exact same night she has her first menstrual period. Written in the first person from Stephanie’s perspective, Stephanie’s kiss with Peter is the second time a Judy Blume character has her first kiss with a boy named Peter. In Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself (1977), Sally has her first kiss with a boy named Peter Hornstein, which she boldly initiates. See my annotation on this book here. Also, in Just As Long As We’re Together (1987), Judy has created the most impossibly cool 12-year-old in the history of American literature with the uber-stylish Alison Monceau who was born in Vietnam and arrives in Stephanie and Rachel’s preppy east coast town from Los Angeles by way of Paris with her talking dog Maizie, her TV star mom and TV writer step-dad. She also has a paternal step-grandmother named Sadie Wishnik who lives in a beach house. For two other particularly stylish Judy Blume characters see my annotation for Iggie’s House (1970) here and Tiger Eyes (1980) here. For extended recaps of this novel, as well as dramatic readings of dialogue with music and soundscapes, listen to the multi-episode arcs released in 2020 by The Blume Saloon podcast, produced and narrated by Alison Michaels and Jody Worthington. For a literary critique of this novel, listen to Allie Hoff Kosick’s SSR podcast with Caroline Moss, Episode 68. Special note to Judy: Please write The Alison Monceau Story. We need it.

Blume Judy. 1993. Here’s to You Rachel Robinson.

Rachel Robinson's bratty 14-year-old brother, Charles, returns home after getting kicked out of prep school in the late spring of Rachel’s first year in junior high. A continuation of Just as Long as We’re Together (1987), Rachel is interested in and good at practically everything she tries but is worried that her braininess and ambition might distance her from her classmates, including her best friends, Stephanie and Alison, and Charles’ often mean behavior and comments towards her inflames those worries. She also thinks Charles is unfair and sometimes cruel towards her accomplished mom, kind dad, and self-assured, smart older sister, Jessica, and resents him dragging all of them into family therapy. Charles slowly starts to become a little less difficult to deal with and Rachel also learns how to better ignore him and live her own life, including cultivating a crush on Charles’ tutor, a tall and dark-eyed college guy named Paul Medeiros and Jeremy Kravitz, a slightly older, ninth-grade boy in her math class, whom Rachel, Stephanie, and Alison all call Jeremy Dragon because of a satin chartreuse jacket he wears with a dragon embroidered on the back. At the end of the book she and Jeremy go for a walk on one of the first warm nights of the spring and they kiss, her second, Rachel notes, having kissed a classmate, Max Wilson, at the seventh grade Groundhog Day Dance, earlier that year. Written in the first person from Rachel’s perspective, Rachel is arguably a late 1980s variation on Jamie, Katherine Danzinger’s exceptionally talented artistic younger sister in Forever (1980), see my annotation on this book directly above. For extended recaps of this novel, as well as dramatic readings of dialogue with music and soundscapes, listen to the multi-episode arcs released in 2023 by The Blume Saloon podcast, produced and narrated by Alison Michaels and Jody Worthington. For a literary critique of this novel, listen to Allie Hoff Kosick’s SSR podcast with Kwana Jackson, Episode 231.