Judy Blume's New Book For Adults Is Out Next Year: What Would We Do Without Her?

Judy Blume is putting the finishing touches to her first adult novel since 1998 (Summer Sisters), and it's it's been a long time coming for the generations of women who learned everything they needed to know about life from the American author's books.

Youngsters may still be discovering Are You There God, It's Me Margaret?, Tales of a Forth Grade Northing and Blubber, but for those of us who've read Blume's back catalogue, we're in need of some more life advice.

She taught us so much about love, sex, relationships and, erm periods.

1. Americans girls really want to get their period

We never got why. But if Margaret wanted it so bad it made it seem a bit less awful that it was going to happen to us. And this was even in the days when instead of tampons and sticky-backed sanitary pads, they had incredibly complicated sounding belted ones.

While it never made us that excited about the prospect of 'becoming a woman' it demystified the whole thing to take some of the horror out of it.

2. Boobs are good and special exercises can make them bigger

"We must, we must, we must increase our bust!" Sorry, Margaret, don't think we fell for this one. That's not to say we didn't give it a try though.

3. If you want to get teenagers to read a book, ban it

When Blubber was banned in our school for 'lack of moral tone', everyone decided to read it.

Judy said of the book: "Censors do not want children exposed to ideas different from their own. If every individual with an agenda had his or her way, the shelves in the school library would be close to empty."

It taught us more about bullying than years of PSE lessons.

4. Everyone has body issues

Beautiful Deenie, who's set to be a model, winds up in a back brace and realises there's more to life than being pretty. An important lesson when it feels like there is nothing more important than how bad your spots are.

5. ALL the sex stuff

From masturbation to the fact that losing your virginity hurts, Judy was a lot more forthcoming than our own mothers when it came to the facts of life. She was one of the first authors to give two teenage characters a sexual experience that didn't end in something tragic like an unwanted pregnacny or horrific abortion.

And she reminded us that it's not the be all and end all.

“She wondered if all the firsts in her life would go by so quickly, and be forgotten just as quickly.”

6. Some men name their penises Ralph

Though hopefully not many.

7. It's never wise to swallow a turtle

Censors were worried children would try to chow down on the reptiles after reading Tales of a Forth Grade Nothing. But as it lands Fudge in hospital we don't think even the most impressionable youngsters would try it at home.

So what will she teach us in the future? Well we learned about teenage relationships, discovered the truth about sex, masturbation and falling in and out of love before we even really knew what that meant.

So hopefully her new book will help us deal with some of the new life issues we'll be facing in the years to come, with the down to earth humour she gave Fudge and Margaret.

1. How to deal with disappointing sex at the other end of the spectrum

We're not teenagers anymore, instead of stage fright it'll be erectile disfunction, not being arsed to have sex at all and having sex with someone new after divorcing the only person you've shagged for the last decade/s. Where do we even start?

2. Childbirth

Don't sugar coat it for us, Judy, we need to know this.

3. Periods

Will Margaret lie about her period's stopping? She must be menopausal by now right? In fact she was probably the last that it happened to and was desperate for the first sign of those hot flushes. If she can get through it, so will the rest of us (alright, we're a long way off!)

4. What are men naming their penis now?

Brad? Messi?

5. And what else should we avoid swallowing?