Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
by Judy Blume
read: 2011
Time 100 Novels
Oddly enough, Never Let Me Go reminded me of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. Specifically, the interplay between Kathy and Ruth is similar to that between the titular Margaret and Nancy Wheeler. Kathy and Margaret both quickly become friends with Ruth / Nancy, impressed by the other girl's maturity and leadership. Over time, however, they come to realize that their friends' self-assuredness is just a front, disguising a girl who is just as frightened and uncertain as anyone else. Obviously I was never a teenage girl, but having seen relatives go through the experience, it seems like this is a fairly universal phenomenon.
Margaret's inclusion on the Time list of greatest novels 1923 - 2005 suggests that it is the greatest children's / young adult book of all time, or at least of the 20th century. Personally, I'd give the nod to one of Katherine Paterson's works, but this is a good book. If I have a daughter, I'll be interested to see how she responds to it when she's 11 or so; it requires quite the feat of projection on my part as a 31-year-old male to fully understand the feelings of the characters in the story.
Margaret's inclusion on the Time list of greatest novels 1923 - 2005 suggests that it is the greatest children's / young adult book of all time, or at least of the 20th century. Personally, I'd give the nod to one of Katherine Paterson's works, but this is a good book. If I have a daughter, I'll be interested to see how she responds to it when she's 11 or so; it requires quite the feat of projection on my part as a 31-year-old male to fully understand the feelings of the characters in the story.
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