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In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume

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Susan
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In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume

Post by Susan » Fri May 15th, 2015, 1:32 am

Children's author Judy Blume will have an adult novel, In the Unlikely Event, out in June 2015 about a series of plane crashes in her hometown of Elizabeth, NJ where I teach, so historical fiction. In fact, one of the crashes just missed the school where I teach (now a K-8 school), which was a girls high school at that time attended by Judy Blume. Blume was at my school today. Elizabeth is very close to Newark Liberty Airport. I can see planes coming in for a landing from my classroom.

From Amazon: "In 1987, Miri Ammerman returns to her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, 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 a community reeling. Against this backdrop of actual events that Blume experienced in the early 1950s, when airline travel was new and exciting and everyone dreamed of going somewhere, she paints a vivid portrait of a particular time and place..."

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.s ... ely_e.html

Photo below show the plane wreckage with my school in the background.

Image
Last edited by Susan on Fri May 15th, 2015, 1:48 am, edited 4 times in total.
~Susan~
~Unofficial Royalty~
Royal news updated daily, information and discussion about royalty past and present
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Lisa
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Favourite HF book: Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
Preferred HF: Any time period/location. Timeslip, usually prefer female POV. Also love Gothic melodrama.
Location: Northeast Scotland

Post by Lisa » Fri May 15th, 2015, 8:33 am

That sounds terrifying.

Also, I devoured all Judy Blume's books for teenagers when I was younger, and I've been meaning to check out her adult books for a while, so will probably give this a whirl at some point.

Seriously though, terrifying.

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Susan
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Post by Susan » Fri May 15th, 2015, 9:28 am

It does sound terrifying, especially when the setting is someplace I go every school day. I walk past that place in the photo every day. I am really excited to read it!

Here's Judy Blume (she looks great for having graduated high school in 1956) standing in front of her high school where I now teach (it's a K-8 school now) with my language arts (English) supervisor on the left and my principal second from the left.

Image
~Susan~
~Unofficial Royalty~
Royal news updated daily, information and discussion about royalty past and present
http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/

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Susan
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Post by Susan » Sun May 31st, 2015, 11:53 pm

I just found out from the article below that the main character of In the Unlikely Event is a student at the middle school where I used to teach. That's where Judy Blume went to junior high (as it was called back then). Blume went to the all girls high school at the school where I now teach, but it's now a K-8 school and her old junior high is now a high school.

'I'm not doing this again': Judy Blume's final novel for adults revisits Elizabeth air tragedies
~Susan~
~Unofficial Royalty~
Royal news updated daily, information and discussion about royalty past and present
http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/

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Susan
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Post by Susan » Sun May 31st, 2015, 11:58 pm

Creepy that I walk by the place where the plane crashed every school day.

How three planes crashed in three months in Elizabeth in '50s
~Susan~
~Unofficial Royalty~
Royal news updated daily, information and discussion about royalty past and present
http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
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Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
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Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Mon June 1st, 2015, 2:07 am

Now that sounds interesting! I too read Judy Blume when I was a teenager--she's been writing a loong time. Must check this out.

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