Judy Blume Saves Marriage After Man Gives Away Keepsake Book

Judy Blume Image by Getty Images
Who knows if God is listening, but Judy Blume sure is.
Leonard Lasek, a newly married Brooklynite, accidentally gave away a priceless copy of Blume’s “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” that belonged to his wife, Katie. The book had been a gift from Katie’s mother and holds great sentimental value.
Lasek all over Greenpoint, which read: “I accidentally gave this book away on Saturday July 25th in a box on the corner of Green & Franklin streets in Greenpoint. The book is extremely important to my wife. It was a keepsake of from her mother and is irreplaceable. On the inside cover is a note that reads ‘Christmas 1991.’ If you happened to pick up this book can you please get in touch with me.”
That’s when Judy Blume came to the rescue, via Twitter:
Trying to make contact w/Husb who gave away wife’s copy of “Margaret.” Need snail mail address & wife’s first name. [email protected]
— Judy Blume (@judyblume) July 30, 2015
.@reddsauce-and you were just married! I take this as a good omen. Still think Katie’s book will show up but I’m on the case. Flying today.
— Judy Blume (@judyblume) July 31, 2015
Blume reached out to Lasek after her own husband showed her the story. She told the NY Daily News, “This poor guy. I feel for him. People are calling him stupid, but he just didn’t know. I bet he just scooped up a bunch of old books, you know?”
She is currently looking for a copy of the book with the same cover as the lost one.
“I love interacting with my readers, and I really hope this story has a happy ending,” she said.
Lets hope the new husband isn’t in the doghouse for too long. In any case, it looks like he’s learned his lesson. His new Twitter bio reads: “Don’t ever clean the apartment.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Why can Harvard stand up to Trump? Because it didn’t give in to pro-Palestinian student protests
-
Culture How an Israeli dance company shaped a Catholic school boy’s life
-
Fast Forward Brooklyn event with Itamar Ben-Gvir cancelled days before Israeli far-right minister’s US trip
-
Culture How Abraham Lincoln in a kippah wound up making a $250,000 deal on ‘Shark Tank’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.