Are You There, Listeners? Judy Blume Answers Your Questions

In December 1951, Judy Blume was a junior high student growing up in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Then, a plane crashed less than two blocks from her school... the first of three plane crashes that would plague her suburban town over the course of two months. Blume explores the memory of this time and place in her latest novel, In the Unlikely Event. In the book, it is 1987, and Miri Ammerman has returned to her hometown of Elizabeth to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life: thirty-five years earlier, when Miri was fifteen, and in love for the first time, a succession of airplanes fell from the sky, leaving her community reeling.

Judy Blume is here to discuss the book, and her celebrated career writing for young adults and beyond. Leave your questions for her in the comments section.

Listen: Judy Blume's In the Unlikely Event Spotify Playlist

From the Archives: Audio of WNYC's original report on one of the 1952 crashes