Review: Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"We must, we must, we must increase our bust..."

That line totally cracks me up! Believe it or not, I had never read this book, or actually any of her other children's or YA books. I'm not really sure why, unless even the ones published early enough for me to have read as kid weren't in my school library, because I read pretty much everything in my small elementary school (K-8) library. I've known of the author and this and several other of her books, but just never actually got around to reading it.

I did enjoy the book, and I think much of the content is timeless. Sure, the descriptions of clothing and absence of technology are dated, but dealing with relocating, being the new kid and making friends, girls being self-conscious about their development (or lack thereof), girls crushing on boys, gossip, and family issues never go away. The question of religion, and having parents of different religions is probably even more relevant now than in 1970.

I like that the writing was fairly simple and straightforward, and I like the device of having Margaret talking to God to be somewhat like a diary, letting us see more of her inner thoughts and feelings, as well as being part of her religious exploration.

Even though I am much older than the target audience (only 8 years younger than Margaret would be now!), I still enjoyed this book, as those awkward middle school years are hard to forget. I still remember trying to fit in and discussing bras, periods, and boys with the other girls in my class, though religious questioning didn't come until much later in my case. I think this is still a great coming-of-age book for older elementary and middle-school aged girls and would highly recommend it.

I do think this book is a good example of how murky the YA realm is, and perhaps how it may have changed, as I don't know that I'd really consider this YA but it was assigned in my YA Lit class, as I doubt anyone older than 12 would read it, and it seems to really be more for the 10-12 year olds. In the library where I work, we don't use the "YA" designation. We have Everybody (picture books, early readers, simple non-fiction), Juvenile (generally for ages 8-14), and Teen (14-18), and this book is in the Juvenile fiction there. But, I would guess that in 1970, talking so much about periods may have been considered more mature or risque than it is now (and girls physically mature at younger ages now, I believe).

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