Those of us who got through the angst of our pre-teen years with the help of pioneer young adult author Judy Blume, will be glad to know that one her most poignant novels, Tiger Eyes, has been made into a film.
Tiger Eyes tells the story of Davey, played by Willa Holland, a 15-year-old girl who has moved to New Mexico with her younger brother and her mother, following the violent death of her father. The book opens with Davey borrowing a pair of her mother’s shoes for the funeral, which she describes in covetous detail. This is Blume’s skill: she is an unsentimental writer, who recognizes, exposes and ultimately forgives the protective veneer of adolescent selfishness which we spend our teens trying to justify, and the rest of our lives trying to grow out of.
The broad appeal of Judy does not just exist in the pages of her books. In real life, Blume is a campaigner against censorship, an active tweeter, and is candidly honest about her own imperfections as a mother. Tiger Eyes was written in the aftermath of an unhappy move to New Mexico, where Blume took her children to be with her second husband. The film appears in theaters on June 8.
