Blume has successfully written both young adult and more mature fiction fiction, proving powerful in all genres she has attempted. The New Jersey native, now 74, first hit the publishing market in 1969 with the picture book The One in the Middle Is the Green Kangaroo and then quickly followed up her success with older-grade children’s books, including Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. She landed in middle-grade fiction with Blubber, Iggie’s House and a humorous five-book series featuring the boy Fudge, among others. She hit the New York Times bestsellers list with her first adult novel, Wifey, in 1978, a story about a wife exploring her fantasies, which has sold more than four million copies and paved the way for two more successful adult novels—Smart Women in 1983, and her latest adult work, Summer Sisters, in 1998.