CHARITY SPOTLIGHT

The problem of censorship is now more dire than ever, according to Judy Blume. And she should know — as the mind behind “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” “Deenie” and “Forever,” she’s one of the most banned authors in American history.

Her first experience with censorship came when her children’s elementary school principal refused to put “Margaret” on the library shelves. “He believed that menstruation wasn’t a topic that girls should read about,” Blume recalls. “Never mind how many kids already had their periods.”

But there was hope. “I discovered the little organization that could: the National Coalition Against Censorship,” Blume says. “NCAC is right there on the front lines. If a teacher or a librarian or a parent or a student needs help as books are being challenged in their classrooms, NCAC is on the other end of the phone to help.”

Blume says there was a lot of bookbanning in the ’80s, but it wasn’t the government that was leading it. “Today, there are laws being enacted where a librarian can go to prison if she or he is found guilty of having pornography on their shelves,” Blume says, noting that the definition of “pornography” is loose enough to extend to picture books about children with gay parents.

But with the support of the NCAC, Blume isn’t scared. She balks on the topic of Roald Dahl, whose books are being republished decades after his death with rewrites to passages that are now deemed offensive.

Does she worry that something like that could happen to her books?

“Not as long as I’m around,” she says. And that’s that.