You may have heard that Judy Blume just came out with a new book. Everyone has been losing their minds over it and I felt left out because, until now, I hadn’t actually read anything by Judy Blume.
She’s hailed as a young adult writer and part of me went “Well, it’s too late for that. I should have read her stuff when I was in middle school.” Then I thought, if I can read The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and Percy Jackson as an adult, why can’t I read Judy Blume? After all, in the immortal words of Stephen Colbert, a young adult novel is just “a regular novel that people actually read.”
Having heard Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret mentioned in practically every sentence with Blume’s name, I decided to start there.
It turned out to be a pretty great place to start.
The main character, Margaret, is eleven and the story takes place over the course of her sixth grade year. Her parents have just moved her from New York City to New Jersey. She immediately makes new friends and when someone asks her if she’s going to join the Jewish Community Center or the Y, she doesn’t know what to say.
Margaret’s mother is Christian (she doesn’t specify what denomination) and her father is Jewish. Their marriage was a big deal. So much so that Margaret’s maternal grandparent’s disowned their daughter. Margaret has never met them. She’s very close to her paternal grandmother (grandfather is dead), although it seems like they just never mention religion.
This is something I can kind of relate to. Not the disowning part. I grew up with all four grandparents, but my dad’s family is Catholic and my mom’s family is protestant. It wasn’t until recently that I discovered my dad hadn’t actually dated anyone who wasn’t Catholic before he met my mom. I can’t imagine limiting myself to such a small world!
The point is I grew up in a diverse household. I was raised Catholic, but my mom never came to church with us and I often discussed religion with her. There are a lot of things about the Catholic church that just don’t make sense. Some of it I figured out on my own (like where do we get off deciding who the holiest man alive is?), some of it my mom pointed out to me. So I grew up with a good knowledge base of religion (I also had Jewish friends in high school and we sometimes talked religion), but with a skeptical mind.
Margaret’s parents took a different approach and decided not to raise Margaret with any religion at all. Instead, they’ll let Margaret decide for herself once she’s grown up. But they don’t seem too thrilled when eleven-year-old Margaret starts asking to go to temple and to church. Her mom says she’s too young, but I think eleven is a pretty good age. In any case they don’t stop her from going to temple with her grandmother (who is delighted and claims she always knew Margaret was “a Jewish girl”), or to church with her friends.
The book gets its title from Margaret’s conversations with God. Even before she starts wondering which group she should belong to, she’s always had these little conversations with God where she tells him about what’s going on in her life and asks for his help. She talks to him about going to temple and going to church and looking for him there, but not feeling his presence. Every conversation starts with “Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret.”
Despite her personal search for religion, Margaret (like me) just doesn’t understand what it has to do with personal relationships. Talking about her paternal grandmother, Margaret says, “As long as she loves me and I love her, what difference does religion make?” I couldn’t agree more.
Of course, it’s also a coming-of-age story. Margaret and her friends are obsessed with growing breasts and getting their periods. Is this more of a 1960s thing, or was I just oblivious? I mean I knew what was going to happen, but I don’t remember anxiously awaiting my period (if those girls knew what was in store, they would have counted each day before getting their period as a blessing) or obsessing over my breasts. My mom was the one who informed me I needed to start wearing a bra and deodorant and I went along with it because I didn’t know any better. When I got my period I asked her for a pad, apologized for the mess, and went about my day. No one cried.
What did you guys read this week? Anything for a particular age group? Anything you could relate to? I want to hear all about it in the comments!
Photo credit: <a href=”http://foter.com/”>Foter</a> / <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/”>Public Domain Mark 1.0</a>