Forever by Judy Blume

Forever by Judy Blume
Publisher: Pan Macmillan | 2001 (first published 1975) | 192 pages
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Katherine met Michael Wagner at a New Year Eve’s party. It seemed like instant attraction between the both of them, I think. Katherine feels that she has never felt so strongly about any guy before. With Michael, she’s nervous yet happy to be with him.

Just like the title – Forever, Katherine and Michael thought that their love would remain forever. Both admitted that they really loved each other and Katherine decided to go all the way with Michael. And just like what Katherine’s mom told her, ‘once you start having sex, you can’t go back to holding hands’. It’s completely true. Katherine and Michael can’t keep their hands off each other and are always finding opportunities to be alone together.

Then came summer time. Katherine’s dad insisted that she accepts a job to teach tennis at a camp, which Jamie, Katherine’s younger sister, is going to. Initially, Katherine is reluctant to spend 7 whole weeks away from Michael. She would miss him soooooo much! But, her dad would not take no for an answer. So, she went to camp. She and Michael kept in touch by writing letters everyday.

At the camp, Katherine meets new friends and is attracted to another guy. She feels guilty at first because she thought she was betraying Michael. However, when Michael went to the camp to see her, she decided to be honest with him.

When I visited Amazon.com, many reviewers claimed that this book is a must-read for teenagers so they would know about sex and first love. To me, the story was going fine, but when it came to the part where she fell for another guy, I felt funny. I mean, if she was soooo much in love with Michael, how could she fall for another guy so quickly? It seems to me that Katherine is fickle-minded and doesn’t know what she wants.

Well, this book is okay. It’s easy to read, quick to finish, and Judy Blume is an excellent writer!

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Comments

  1. Ooh I want to read this one sometime. I love Blume.

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  2. This is the only Judy Blume book I’ve read so far and it’s a pretty good read so…yes, you could read it someday!

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  3. forever
    was a pretty good book
    a little to desptive
    but i really enjoyed:)

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  4. emily: Oh yeah…it’s meant to be descriptive. =)

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  5. yeahhh i wanna read this really badly. =)

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  6. Hi Natalie! Then you should read it soon! Enjoy reading!

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  7. this book is amazing!!
    i just got done with it and now im doing a book report on it…i absolutly loved this book!

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  8. hey! this book is really good
    it happens to be my favorite book
    i felt sad that she fell for another guy too. but i guess it was judy blume’s way of ending the book
    but i loved it =)

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  9. Shelby: Hi there, I’m awfully for the late reply to your comment! I’m glad that you liked this book. :)

    Subrina: Hey, yup, it’s a good book for teenage girls, probably to remind them to think first before taking the plunge. Well, looks like Katherine didn’t really love Michael all that much since she can fall for another guy so easily!

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  10. omg gosh i loved this book, though i think i was too young at the time to read it… but i really enjoyed this book and its soo easy to read i finished it in 2 days…. i wish i could find more books like this one…. if you know of any let me know =]

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  11. Hi Erica!

    Nice to know that you like this book, looks like a lot of people like it too. There are more books like this, you can check out the related books in Amazon! I’ll review more if I come across any. Thanks for leaving a comment!

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  12. this book was amazing! I read it when i was probabally 13 and I’m abou to read it again so that I understand it better!

    AMAZING AUTHOR

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  13. i think the “love” between michael and katherine was not believable…it seemed like ichael wanted sex too fast and they just didnt seem like a goo docuple together…

    it was still interesting to rea…i did get dissapointed though cause i thought it would be better :P

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  14. Amanda: Hi, oh yeah, this is quite a good book. 13′s a fine age to read this! :D

    Sally: They probably didn’t have real love like they thought they had. Maybe it’s just puppy love! Yeah the ending wasn’t a happy one for both of them but it’s like reality, isn’t it?

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  15. I loved this book because it really reached out to teenagers saying” don’t off having sex with your boyfriend because your bored!!”
    I think that you should only have sex when your married because what if you get pregnant? There are more young-single moms than married adult moms because these girls will go off, have sex, have the baby and the guy will just take off!
    just something to think about!:)

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  16. @ Courtney: Hey there, wow, there should be more young people like you! People who believe in abstinence until after marriage and also those who should think carefully before doing anything drastic. Yeah, there have been guys who made sweet promises but was not around when the kid’s born. So, the best thing is to just not do it if you aren’t ready!

    Oh yes, Forever’s a good book in the teenage dating category.

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  17. um the book shudnt b bannd its like amazin i red it ovr the summr as a thing 4 skool and it DUZ sho u wat love is and how easy it is to fall out. and i was only 12 1/2 years old.

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  18. Scout: Hey there, you got that right. It does show how easily one can fall out of love with somebody… Good to know that you don’t want it to be banned. :)

    Thanks for visiting my blog!

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  19. Hi, I am writing a story about the banning/censorship of Forever. If anyone would like to give me a quote about your feeling on the book or banning/censoring of books in general just write it here or email me at alcam6[at]aol[dot]com and just leave a name/contact info. Thanks!

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  20. My friends have talked about how they love the book “Forever”. I realy wanted to read it. So I read it and it was GREAT, but not for people under the age of like 14. But i still it was really good. I really didn’t think I was going to like it because of the author “Judy Blume” I didn’t really like her other books, but this book is wonderful!

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  21. Audrey: Hi, I’m glad you liked this book too. Yes, it wouldn’t be at all appropriate for kids under 14. The readers should be mature in their thinking first before attempting to read this book.

    Haha! You didn’t like her other books? I’ve thought of getting them to read for myself.

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  22. i havent finished this book yet..but i read that Katherine had fallen for another guy in tennis camp..im not finished but i just really can’t stand if she did fall for the guy named Theo..as i saw i searched on the net..OMG..im just so stressed about Michael and Katherine not being together..UGHHHHHHH

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  23. Tiffany: Aww, we can’t always expect happy endings! :) I was upset that Katherine met Theo too and like you, I was on tenterhooks regarding their relationship. It’s like, will she go on with Theo or will she be faithful to Michael??

    And yeah, of course I was also hoping that she’ll stick to Michael…

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  24. im just wondering in the book Michael told Katherine to guess something and she answered ‘VD’…maybe i sound stupid but what is that suppose to mean…haha

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  25. Tiffany: Oh dear, I’m afraid I don’t know as the book isn’t with me now so I can’t check. But I just did a search for ‘VD’ on Google. You can check this Wikipedia page. Could it mean Valentine’s Day?

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  26. well the book says that when Katherine guessed VD Michael said i will never give you that..lol…how is that related to Valentine’s day..well i went on wikipedia and searched VD..it means kinda alot of stuff..haha

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  27. Tiffany: Ahhh, since that’s how their conversation went, then I think VD should stand for ‘venereal disease’ in this case.

    And yeah, it obviously can’t be Valentine’s Day. Haha!

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  28. does ‘venereal disease’ mean diseases transmitted by having sex?? haha just guessing?

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  29. Tiffany: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. It’s also known as STD – Sexually Transmitted Disease. Judy Blume must have put that in to create awareness among teens! By the way, which part of the book are you at now or have you already finished it?

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  30. yeah i finished:)

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  31. Tiffany: That’s good! I hope you liked it. Will you be reading another book by Judy Blume?

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  32. idk any other books by her..also i really don’y get why Katherine could fall for another guy so easily when she is deeply in love with Michael…i think this book was written in the 70s..i can’t imagine this book being set in the 70s..haha

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  33. Tiffany: I’ve been planning to read other books by Judy Blume after reading Forever. I found a list of her books if you also want to try.

    Yeah, it was written in 1975. Hmm, Katherine’s still young, 17 years old right? She probably doesn’t know what she wants and perhaps saw something special in Theo. But she and Michael were separated for a while as she had to be at camp. It’s an example of ‘out of sight, out of mind’!

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  34. What age do u reccomend this for

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  35. Hannah: I don’t really know what age group should be reading this. This is a young adult book, so I guess for those aged 12 and above? Also preferably for those who understand what they are reading too. This shouldn’t be the only book to learn about the birds and the bees.

    Anyway, what do you guys think?

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  36. Hey :)

    The day i picked up this book i couldnt put it down, i dont read much im not the reading tipe but after i finished forever i went strate to the libary to find another book by blume :) for anyone who liked Forever and couldnt put it down try readying Summer Sisters ( just to warn you its also very sexual – it follows one girls life in her gay sexual actvitys with friends ) its aslo a hard to put down book

    i think the reading age for Forever is amied at 15 years and older,

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  37. @Frankie: Wow, I’m really glad that this book sparked your interest for reading! Good for you! :)

    Thanks for recommending Summer Sisters. I’ll look out for this book.

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  38. this is my favorite book! i loved it

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  39. @Casey: Glad you liked the book! :)

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  40. hahaha:) i’m tiffany again..the one asked about VD last year:) im back again:D i just realized how many time i’ve read Forever…approx…4 times haha..each time i read it..there’s something different to itXD this is really a good book:)

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  41. @Erin: this book is really good and i think its a good way to show what teenagers sometimes feel.the ending wasn’t my favorite part though.i cant wait to read more of her books.

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  42. I liked this book a lot I think it teaches teenagers. Katherine was just the type of person who wasn’t ready for forever yet and i think judy was trying to show that you make think you are when you may not be. It takes more work then just saying things. I don’t really get the whole forget about Michael and go with Theo, it wasn’t a great ending but it was a good lesson.

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Trackbacks

  1. [...] “Forever” By bannedbookblog     The book “Forever” by Judy Blume was banned as recently as 2005 in Pasadena, Texas a parent’s complaint concerning Forever resulted in thebook being removed from the city’s school libraries.  In my opinion Forever is not a must read. Especially because it contains so much descriptive adolessent sex scenes.I think it should be read by an older age group.       A lot of teenagers say it is a must read but I disagree completely. I am not saying that Blume is a bad author because as said by me and other people “Judy Blume is an excellent writer!” (author unknown)and has written many wonderful novels and best sellers. This book is pretty much a normal everyday romance story that goes a bit to far into the deatails. “It’s a classic from the 70’s thats pretty tame compared to some of todays literature”(Kate Pavao). The main character is a girl named Katerine who is in love with this guy named Michael. She thinks that she will love hiim forever but she doesn’t exactly think about the future with Michael. So she becomes sexually active with michael.       I can understand exactly why this book is banned because it gives a too discriptive details about their activity which adolecents, in my opinion, shouldn’t have to deal with. There is also a guy named Michael. He pushes her into being sexually active and rushes her to it also without thinking how the relationship will turn out.Its not a hard book to read but I don’t recommened it for anyone under the age of 15 or 16. Also this book has too many scenes that may upset a lot of young readers. Overall I think this book is O.K. but has a few, well a lot of kinks that should have been worked out or specified for older readers. As an example a lot of the language is “dated”(Kate Pavao). Also if the book is meant to be in libraries for younger children it would ruin the whole plot so it wouldn’t be able to be in that library without being banned.       When I read this book I got really concerned with this interesting girl, Katherine, and her motive for being in love with Michael and doing what she did. Then I was concerned with her stupidity and how she could have known a guy for 2 months and already be doing sexual activities with him. Further more I was discusted with her and her fail to keep her promise and love Michael, forever. In the sense that Blume is an excellent writer I was amazed at her ability to created such a dimwitted character. But as I said before it is an O.K. book.                        Kaila Simpson               (Kate Pavao)”blog entry” http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/Forever.html (author unknown) “blog entry/ review” http://www.booksloveme.com/2006/12/forever-by-judy-blume/ [...]

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