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NEAL CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Some of the books we read as kids took us on adventures in legendary times or through interdimensional closets. Some brought us right back home, to the lives and problems we struggle to understand every day. "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret," "Then Again, Maybe I Won't," "Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing," in those and many other books, Judy Blume channeled the anxieties, fears and secret desires of young readers. She wrote openly about issues like bullying, divorce, sexuality and puberty, honesty that won her millions of fans and the attentions of more than a few censors. If you write for young people, how have things changed, and how did Judy Blume help change them? Give us a phone call, 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation on our website. That's at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION. Later in the program, ideas to control Black Friday madness. But first Judy Blume joins us here in Studio 3A, and welcome to TALK OF THE NATION.
JUDY BLUME: Thank you so much.
CONAN: It's a delight to meet you.
BLUME: Thank you.
CONAN: And congratulations are in order: You're being honored tonight at the Smithsonian with the John P. McGovern Award for your work on behalf of children and the American family.
BLUME: Thank you again.(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
CONAN: Well, I understand intellectual freedom is one of the issues you plan to speak on tonight. Are your books still banned some places?
BLUME: Oh yes, oh yes, and so are many, many other writers' books. It hasn't gone away. It's growing in different directions, you know, coming - it's contagious, the desire to control everything in your children's lives, including what they read.
CONAN: I wonder, looking back, some of the things that might have shocked someone 30 years ago or 40 years ago don't seem so alarming these days. Are your books in trouble sometimes because they're by Judy Blume?
BLUME: Well, I have to say that 40 years ago, whenever that was...(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BLUME: I know when I started to write, it was the '70s, and throughout that decade, we didn't have any problems with...