Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

genre: middle grade fiction

Just before Margaret turns twelve, she moves from the city out to the suburbs in New Jersey and this coming-of-age story takes place among Margaret and the kids in her sixth grade class.  With the little group of girls she becomes friends with, Margaret explores what it means to grow up, between bras and periods and boys, there's a lot to learn!  One really needs someone to talk to about it all and Margaret chooses God, since she doesn't really know much about him but everyone says he's got her back.  Through the drama of early middle school, Margaret can definitely see the power in having God at your back, if he's really there at all.

There are specific scenes in this book that I remember from when I read it at about age twelve myself, and although some of it is dated, some of it is actually timeless - worries that you won't fit in, worries that you'll be the last to "get it," worries that you'll never actually NEED a bra, those quintessential prepubescent feelings are laid out without fanfare or judgement.  The religious piece surprised me because I remember nothing about THAT part, isn't that funny?  But Margaret's search for God as the daughter of a non-practicing Christian and a non-orthodox Jew is a real one and it takes up a lot of her mind and a lot of her family's emotional energy, in one way or another.

Even though I'm clearly not the audience it was written for, I get why it's a classic.

No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...