Forever
Author: Judy Blume
Publisher: Pocket Books
Date of Publication: 1975
Format: Softcover
Page Count: 220 Pages
Cost: $7.99
ISBN: 0-671-44181-7
Reading Level: Ages 14 and up
Plot Summary: When Katherine and Michael meet at a mutual friend’s New Year’s Eve party, sparks fly immediately. Although they don’t attend the same school, they find ways to visit one another on the weekends and whenever possible. As their relationship quickly progresses, so does their physical experimentation with one another. Eventually, feeling as though they will be in love forever, they decide to have sex. After one failed attempt they manage to do it, although the experience is less than satisfying for Katherine. However, that doesn’t hurt their relationship until they graduate high school and make different summer plans. Suddenly Katherine finds herself attracted to a different boy, and starts to wonder whether she’s too young to commit herself to forever.
Evaluation: This book was revolutionary when it was first written in 1975, for its depiction of a teenaged couple who make a conscious decision to have sex and endure no negative consequences or later regrets for this act. It is still the subject of a great deal of controversy today, but it contains a valuable lesson about the importance of making conscious, well-informed decisions about one’s own sexuality, including planning for the use of birth control. Although this book was written over thirty years ago, it will be as relevant to teens experimenting with their sexuality today as it was to their parents when they were growing up. This book is an honest depiction of first love when it seems endless, and first love when it inexplicably but inevitably slips away.
Annotation:
Katherine and Michael are sure that they have the perfect love, but will their relationship really last forever?
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