Seli­na Alko has writ­ten and illus­trat­ed a tru­ly great pic­ture book ded­i­cat­ed to the inim­itable children’s book author Judy Blume. The book’s unusu­al struc­ture, a series of poems built around key events and peo­ple in Blume’s child­hood, invites read­ers into the young life of a future icon. Inven­tive titles for each poem, many allud­ing to Blume’s own books, add a dimen­sion that encour­ages inter­gen­er­a­tional shar­ing. Alko’s illus­tra­tions, with their col­or­ful and bold images, brings her subject’s for­ma­tive years to life.

“Judy the Great” was born Judith Suss­man, in 1938, in Eliz­a­beth, New Jer­sey. She was a book­ish girl who immersed her­self in the tales of Nan­cy Drew and Lud­wig Bemelmans’s Made­line. In Alko’s poem ​“Tales of a Fourth Grade Read­er,” young Judy iden­ti­fies with her lit­er­ary hero­ines. Pic­tured sit­ting on top of a vol­ume, lost in a book her­self, Judy heads a group of her favorite char­ac­ters. A two-page spread enti­tled ​“Unlike­ly Events” is a ref­er­ence to one of Blume’s nov­els for adults, based on a fright­en­ing and inex­plic­a­ble series of air crash­es that dev­as­tat­ed her com­mu­ni­ty. Like Blume her­self, Alko does not avoid uncom­fort­able mate­r­i­al, although she empha­sizes how Judy inte­grat­ed trou­bling feel­ings and adapt­ed to circumstances.

Some poems com­bine plot ele­ments from Blume’s books and their rel­e­vance to her life. ​“End of Sen­tence” is clever and short, an homage to Blume’s frank dis­cus­sion of men­stru­a­tion in Are You There God?” It’s Me, Mar­garet. Blume’s com­mit­ment to open­ly address­ing this and oth­er once-taboo top­ics in books for young read­ers has earned her a peren­ni­al place on lists of banned books. Here, Alko clev­er­ly pic­tures Judy wait­ing for her first peri­od, with­out actu­al­ly spec­i­fy­ing the nature of this life-chang­ing mile­stone. The illus­tra­tion shows a girl with her hands clasped over the word ​“MY” in large bold font, imply­ing a healthy sense of own­er­ship over her body.

In ​“Hol­i­days,” Judy finds the Christ­mas atmos­phere in New York City excit­ing. Trav­el­ing ​“twen­ty-sev­en min­utes by train to Penn Sta­tion” brings her close to such won­ders of the dom­i­nant cul­ture as the Rock­e­feller Cen­ter Tree, but this does not dis­place her family’s cel­e­bra­tion of Hanukkah. Jew­ish cer­e­monies sur­round­ing death are also a promi­nent part of her child­hood, includ­ing the sev­en days of mourn­ing, where fam­i­ly and friends ​“sat and ate and mourned.” Judy’s fears about her father’s fail­ing health are always present. Alko’s depic­tion of a shi­va shows Judy seat­ed on a couch with fam­i­ly mem­bers, her father’s arm pro­tec­tive­ly encir­cling her. The table is cov­ered with bagels, black-and-white cook­ies, and hal­vah, and the expres­sion on Judy’s face reveals the con­tra­dic­tion between sad­ness and appre­ci­a­tion of the abun­dance of deli­cious food.

Final­ly Judy grows up, as announced in the poem, ​“Judy Blooms.” Seat­ed at a type­writer, the new­ly con­fi­dent author pro­duces the books that have made her famous, each one emerg­ing from a leafy branch as they have from her imag­i­na­tion and experiences.

Oth­er­wise Known as Judy the Great is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed and includes an author’s note, time­line, pho­tographs, and list of sources.