Mary Lee Shalvoy

Well-known author Judy Blume visited Alameda this week.

Author Judy Blume loves her readers. And apparently the feeling is mutual. On Monday, about 400 fans crammed into Books Inc., on Park Street to hear her talk.

It proved to be the biggest event — and the final night — of Blume's current book tour, promoting her latest chapter book for young readers, Soupy Saturdays with the Pain & the Great One.

Her fans came to get a glimpse, hear her speak and gush about her work while she signed book after book. From the fourth graders reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing to the 40-somethings weaned on the seminal 1970 young adult novel, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret., Judy Blume's fans are hard core, helping her 25 books sell more than 80 million copies worldwide.

Blume loves meeting her readers. Time after time, she graciously and gratefully signed each copy of both her latest book and the tattered original paperbacks of Margaret, Superfudge and Forever, just to name a few of her multiple best-sellers that have made Blume nearly a household name. As she individually thanked each visitor, she also signed many of her novels for adults, including Summer Sisters, Smart Women and Wifey.

What's the hardest part of a book tour? "Not getting sick!" she said. But she loves the children and doesn't want to keep them away, so she keeps antibacterial lotion on-hand at all times. She rates the bookstores she visits by how the staff treat "my readers." And she loathes a return to one that doesn't meet her standards.

The Alameda crowd kept her on her toes, asking her new and different questions, she said, and she reveled in the curiosity. "Are you nice?" asked one young girl, taking Blume by surprise. She let her husband, George Cooper, also a published author, reply. "She's nice to kids," he said.

A bold boy asked her age and she turned it into a math lesson. "I was born on February 12, 1938. Now, who can figure that out?" It took a few minutes, but everyone was satisfied with the answer. She said she doesn't feel her age. "I feel the same as I did 20 years ago."

In addition to writing books, Blume works on a number of endeavors that are close to her heart, including being the founder and trustee of The Kids Fund, a charitable and educational foundation.

She serves on the boards of the Author's Guild; the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, where she sponsors an award for contemporary fiction; and the National Coalition Against Censorship, working to protect intellectual freedom.

She also has recently discovered blogging, and keeps fans updated on the events in her life through www.judyblume.com. Look for a site update in the coming weeks, she said.

Her latest release, Soupy Saturdays, is the first in a series of four books that will be released in the next few years. She wrote a picture book about the main characters in 1974, titled The Pain and the Great One, and loosely based on the relationship between her daughter and son. But in writing the new books, Blume said that the characters have taken on lives of their own.

Blume noted that writing for children and writing for adults involves the same creative process. She said that she tried to give up writing at one point, but "creativity does not let you abandon it," finding her again in the form of the young brother and sister. This certainly made her local fans happy, who, it seems, give her energy and will keep her writing — and signing books — for a long time to come.