Judy Blume (born Judy Sussman on February 12, 1938) is a popular American author. She has written many novels for children and young adults. She was born and raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey.Diskin, Colleen. [http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk5JmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3MjA0MDgz "Mother Load: Author's beating the ban"], The Record (Bergen County), October 6, 2007. Accessed October 6, 2007. "Blume, who grew up in Elizabeth, told me she meets mothers all the time who say they want to pass her books down to their kids." Blume received a B.S. degree in Education in 1961 from New York University and started writing while living in the New Jersey communities of Scotch Plains and Plainfield.Goldblatt, Jennifer. [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/nyregion/14NJ.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq= "Blume's Day"], The New York Times, November 14, 2004. Accessed February 5, 2008. "It wasn't until after Ms. Blume had gotten her bachelor's degree in education from New York University in 1961, was married and raising her son, Larry, and her daughter, Randy, and living in Plainfield and later Scotch Plains, that she started to commit her stories and characters to paper, cramming writing sessions in while the children were at preschool and at play."