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

From the author's website: A move from the city to the suburbs, sixth grade in a different school, a new group of friends. But Margaret handles it...in her own funny, endearing way.




I have finally finished my first book for the Shelf Discovery Reading Challenge - hooray! I remember this one from my childhood but as I saw another participant wrote - in rereading it, I realised there was a lot more to the story than just a girl who wishes she would develop faster. The bust exercises were definitely something me and my friends all tried - I guess that kinesthetic activity cemented that part of the story into my memory. But the other storylines were even more interesting. There was Margaret's search for a religious home with the pressure form the grandparents on either side contrasted with her parents' reluctance to even engage in a discussion about religion with Margaret. Then there is the idea of Margaret becoming aware that all the other children are not necessarily what they seem to be at first; the "bad girl" might be nice and the "good girl" might have some flaws. Middle school is such a hard age and Blume captures it perfectly!

I also enjoyed perusing Judy Blume's website. Reading her stories about this book and others being censored was very interesting. She's a leader in the movement to keep books from being censored and she has a story about her mother "banning a book" for her that was very similar to my own experience!

This was a fun read for the Shelf Discovery Challenge hosted by Booking Mama. I am glad to have a notch on my Shelf Discovery belt and am looking forward to the others on my list. Click on the logo if you'd like to see the rest of my list.





This is one of the books on my list for the Spring Reading Thing 2010 hosted by Katrina at Callapidder Days. Click on the logo if you'd like to see the rest of my list.





This book is my "A" book for the 2010 A-Z Reading Challenge. Click on the button to see my progress.