The Backgammon, Bonking and (tennis) Balls Book (Forever - Judy Blume)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Forever - Judy Blume
Date:	27/07/01 (1254 review reads)
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Thinking about it, I don’t think there was a single member of my form who had not read this book by Lower 4 (our name for Year 8, 2nd year senior school). There were a few copies which would circulate among us and which, by the end of the year, had become very worn. The copy that belonged to me even had “important” bits underlined by some annoying person – note to self, beware who you lend books to in the future. Whichever was you look at it, “Forever” was THE book – it taught us more about sex than any biology lessons, and made us laugh and cry and scream with exasperation at some of the parents’ actions. What more could you want from a book?

The Characters
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Katherine : High school senior (6th former), sensible, smart, pretty, tennis player extrordinaire. She falls for Michael in a bad way – pretty soon they are spending all their time together much to her parents’ dismay.

Michael : Skiing instructor, supposedly wonderful body, never been in love until now, has mostly absent parents leaving him the freedom to do what he wants

Erica : Katherine’s best friend, short, smart and sassy. Gets fed up with the lack of men in her life and starts seeing Artie who has problems even she can’t solve

Artie : Michael’s best buddy, introverted except when on stage, board game buff and general nice guy but with some deep-seated problems

Katherine’s Parents : A librarian and a pharmacist who get concerned about the increasing closeness of Katherine and Michael’s relationship

Janie : Katherine’s genius sister, artist, cook and general good little girl with an unfortunate habit of walking in on things she really shouldn’t

Ralph : erm, read the book and find out, ok? Let’s just say he’s one of Michael’s “special friends”

Plot
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Witho
ut giving too much away, boy meets girl, dates girl, sleeps with girl and then has to make some tough choices. You want a bit more than that? Ok. Michael and Katherine are the perfect couple to start with, although said girl’s parents thing it’s too much too soon. Unlike a lot of people they don’t immediately forget their friends the minute they get together.

Throughout the book there are adventures with alcohol (and don’t we all wish our parents were as cool as hers in this situation). There is a death or two (well only one that happens in the course of the story as far as I can remember). There are some scenes that make you howl with laughter. There are some heart wrenching scenes and there is a chapter (the last one) that when you are young you just want to rip out of the book and pretend it never happened.

When the book was first released it sparked controversy due to its explicit nature and the fact that it would “encourage children to make like Katherine and Michael and hump everything insight”. I could not disagree more. All it showed me was that any relationship can end in heartbreak, and although they seem to have sex a lot, it’s always very safe. There was an entire chapter dedicated to a trip to the family planning clinic for example.

I liked this book when I was a young teenager and think it’s a great way to start talking about sex with your kids – give them a copy, let them read it and then discuss it. The more informed teenagers are, the less likely they are to make the wrong decisions.

The book is well written, as all of Blume’s are. The style flows making it easy to read, and the characters jump out of the page at times they are so real. The ideas presented are simple on the surface but when you delve deeper you can see the layers there. But, there are some things I don’t agree with. These teenagers are a little too nice at parts – no one is t
hat perfect all the time. And how come the characters all live in a world whiter than a snowmen’s convention? This is an area consistent throughout most of Blume’s books. But, in some ways, it could be better than having their token Hispanic character and their token African American one a la Saved By the Bell.......

For adults it might seem a little superficial but read it anyway and try and think like a 12 year old when you do.

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