Merry Wanderer of the Night + young adult

Are You There God? It's Me Margaret

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

is about, as you might have guessed, a young girl named Margaret. She has recently moved from her home in New York to a suburb in New Jersey because her parents want to be around nature. They want to mow! But her parents find out they cannot mow, amongst other things.

Upon her arrival in New Jersey Margaret makes friends with Nancy who suggests that Margaret not wear socks on the first day of school. Margaret desperately wants to be cool, so she does not wear socks against her mothers wishes. This results in several blisters and the realization that all the other girls are wearing socks anyway. Through Nancy Margaret meets Gretchen and Janie. The four girls form a club and discuss which boys (or boy, really) are the cutest, getting their periods, and their families. Nancy is kind of terrifying because she comes up with all the rules so everything that is said in the club is not exactly true, like who the cutest boy is for example. Everything must be Nancy approved.

In the midst of all the boys, periods, and busts, Margaret is also dealing with questions of religion. Her mother is Christian and her father is Jewish, so they do not practice any religion in their household. Margaret prays secretly but when she attends temple with her grandmother and church with her friends she realizes that she doesn't really know anything about religion. And that it might be kind of boring and silly.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought I hadn't read it before, but once I started I recognized the story, so I must have read it. As I mentioned on here during the readathon, I actually related to Margaret's teach, Mr. Benedict, more than anyone else in the novel. He is only 24-years-old and just graduated from college. He is completely nervous on his first day as a teacher and the kids in the class all want to play tricks on him. Blume is a genius because his character is actually fairly well developed and made the book enjoyable for me, not that Margaret isn't enough.

I read this for Booking Mama's Shelf Discovery Challenge.

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Are You There God? It's Me Margaret + young adult