Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

What's inside (7 sections)

1. Nancy takes charge
2. Moose and Philip
3. Prayers with no address
4. Waiting to grow up
5. What creaks and what still holds
6. Key takeaways
7. FAQ

I found this book on my sister's shelf when I was about thirteen. The spine was loose and someone had penciled stars next to certain pages. I had expected a lesson book. What I got instead was a voice that sounded like thinking out loud late at night. Judy Blume published it in 1970 with Atheneum Books for Young Readers, and the edition I read runs 192 pages. It is short, but I read it slowly because Margaret's worries felt close to my own at that age.

Margaret Simon is almost twelve when the story starts. She lives in New York City with her parents, and she talks to God in private prayers that begin with the title line. She is not sure who God is yet. Her mother was raised Christian. Her father was raised Jewish. They decided to raise Margaret without a set religion and let her choose later. Margaret likes the privacy of those talks. She tells God about school and about feeling left out. She asks for help with small things that feel huge at twelve.

Then the family moves. Her father gets a job that lets them buy a house in Farbrook, New Jersey. Margaret leaves her city school and her old friends. She leaves elevators and bus noise for lawns and split level houses. She worries she will never fit in. On her first day in the new neighborhood, a girl her age knocks and takes charge. That girl is Nancy Wheeler.

Nancy takes charge

Nancy Wheeler lives nearby and knows everything about Farbrook. She is confident and bossy in the way some sixth graders are. She tells Margaret who teaches what and where kids hang out. She invites Margaret into a secret club with two other girls from school. Gretchen joins in, funny and loyal. Janice is there too, quieter, with her own worries about fitting in.

The club has rules. They meet in bedrooms with the door closed. They talk about bodies and about boys. They read pamphlets about growing up. They practice wearing bras even before they need them. They chant a rhyme about liking a certain boy. I laughed when I reread those scenes because the secrecy felt so true. At that age, a closed door makes everything feel serious.

Nancy sets the pace. She claims to know about periods and kissing. She brags about having a boyfriend in another town. Margaret listens and nods, then goes home and wonders if she is behind. She starts doing exercises she thinks will help her grow. She stands in front of the mirror and compares herself to pictures in magazines. Blume writes this without teasing. She lets Margaret feel silly and hopeful at once.

School adds pressure. The teacher assigns a year long project where each student studies a topic. Margaret chooses religion, because that question is already on her mind. She plans to visit different services and write about what she learns. Her classmates pick animals and presidents. Margaret picks the hardest thing in her life. I admired that choice even as I worried for her, because twelve is young to explain your family to a classroom.

Margaret wants answers she can use on Monday morning, not ideas for later.

The club scenes carry a lot of the book because not much else happens in terms of plot. They try on bras. They wait for signs of growing up. They argue about who is more mature. One girl gets her period before the others and becomes an expert for a week. Another girl pretends she knows more than she does. Margaret sits in the middle, watching, trying to decide how much to share. That middle seat felt familiar to me. I spent a lot of sixth grade watching louder kids and taking notes.

Moose and Philip

Boys enter the story the way they do in real sixth grade, through gossip and parties. Margaret likes Moose Freed, an older boy in the neighborhood. He mows lawns and acts cool around younger kids. She watches for him on her street. She hopes he will notice her without her having to do anything embarrassing. Her crush is sweet and one sided and completely absorbing for a few weeks.

Philip Leroy is closer to her age. He goes to school with them and shows up at a birthday party where the kids play kissing games. The party scene is famous for a reason. The lights are low. Records play. Someone spins a bottle. Margaret ends up kissing Philip during the game, and she feels thrilled and mortified at once. She replays it later in bed, wondering what it meant and whether Nancy will be jealous.

Blume handles these moments with care. Nothing goes far. A hand held too long. A kiss that lasts two seconds. But to Margaret, those seconds matter. She worries she kissed badly. She fears Philip will brag. She wonders if Moose heard about it. Adult readers may smile at how small the stakes look from outside. Inside Margaret's head, the stakes feel right. Reputation in sixth grade is currency, and she does not want to go broke in her first month in Farbrook.

There is also a kind neighbor boy and a few classroom scenes where boys tease girls about bras. Margaret learns to laugh it off or to snap back, depending on the day. She learns which boys are safe to talk to and which ones perform for each other. I liked that Blume does not make any boy a villain. They are as confused as the girls, just louder about it.

Prayers with no address

The heart of the book is Margaret's private talk with God. Each chapter often starts or ends with a short prayer. She says where she is and what she needs. She asks to grow soon and to be normal. She wants guidance about religion because her school project forces the issue.

Her parents' choice hangs over these prayers. Her mother, Barbara, grew up Christian and left some of that behind to marry. Her father, Herb, grew up Jewish and did the same. They told both extended families that Margaret would choose for herself when she was older. That sounded fair in theory. In practice, Margaret feels unclaimed. Other kids go to Sunday school or Hebrew school. They have words for what they believe. She has questions.

She visits church with a friend one Sunday. She likes the singing and feels awkward during the sermon because she does not know when to stand. She visits a temple another time and feels moved by the music and lost during the Hebrew. She reads a bit about both. She asks her parents why they did not pick one path. Her mother says they wanted freedom for her. Her father says faith should be personal. Those answers sound calm, but Margaret hears the strain under them. Both parents gave up closeness with their own parents to marry, and Margaret senses that cost.

Grandma Sylvia, her father's mother, pushes hardest. Sylvia lives in New York and visits with bags of food and strong opinions. She wants Margaret to embrace her Jewish side. She sends books. She hints that Margaret's mother kept her away from family. Margaret loves her grandmother's warmth and dreads her pressure. Phone calls with Sylvia swing between laughter and guilt. I recognized that mix from my own family, where love and expectation arrive in the same box.

The Y versus JCC choice brings this to a head. For summer plans, Margaret is invited to activities tied to different groups. One option connects to the Y, which in Farbrook feels tied to church kids and school friends. The other connects to the JCC, tied to Jewish kids and to Sylvia's hopes. Margaret does not want to pick wrong. She likes kids in both circles. She worries that choosing one program means choosing one side of herself. Blume lets this stay small and concrete. No big speech about theology. Just a schedule card and a girl staring at it.

Her classroom presentation day stays with me. She stands at the front with note cards that shake a little. She tells the class she visited a church service. She also read library books about holidays and prayer. She says she has not chosen yet. Some kids fidget, but her teacher thanks her for honesty. I wished one friend had said choosing later was fine. That small kindness would have eased her loneliness without solving the larger question about faith and family.

Waiting to grow up

A lot of the book is about waiting for the body to catch up. Margaret and her friends compare notes about who needs a bra. They shop with mothers and feel embarrassed in fitting rooms. They whisper about pads and belts, because in 1970 that was the tech. They pass notes in class about who started and who is lying.

Blume is direct without being clinical. She names things plainly. She shows Margaret buying her first bra and feeling both proud and foolish. At night Margaret does bust exercises in her bedroom, hoping for faster change. She shows the sting when Nancy brags and Margaret has nothing to report.

The period storyline lands with care. Margaret wants her first period as proof she is growing. When it finally comes, she feels relief mixed with cramps and mess. She tells her mother first, then her friends in a rush of pride. One friend reacts with envy. Another acts unimpressed. Margaret does not care. For a day, she feels inside the circle instead of outside it.

I found these chapters moving because they respect how physical growing up feels from inside. Adults talk about hormones. Kids feel watched. Margaret worries about changing in the locker room. She fears staining her skirt at school. She hates feeling seen in a way she cannot control. Blume never mocks those fears. She gives Margaret practical help through her mother and through pamphlets, and she lets Margaret keep some embarrassment even after she learns the facts.

There is also a quiet thread about Margaret's height and hair, the daily inventory girls take. She wants long hair like Nancy. She wants to look right in a swimsuit. She practices smiles. These pages have little plot, but they build Margaret's voice. You hear a smart girl trying to be good while wanting to be liked more than she wants to admit.

What creaks and what still holds

No honest summary can skip the parts that feel dated. The book assumes a world where girls mainly want bras and boyfriends. Boys get little inner life. The mothers mostly shop and soothe. The fathers work and stay calm. If you hand this to a kid now, you will need to talk about how gender roles have shifted and how much wider friendship and identity can be.

The plot is thin by design. It stays close to home and school, with the religion project giving the second half its pull. Readers who want twists may get restless around page one hundred. The school project about religion drives the second half, but even that ends without a grand answer. Margaret learns facts and visits services, yet she does not pick a label by the last page. Some kids will love that openness. Others may feel cheated.

The prayers repeat. Margaret asks for the same things in similar words, night after night. Blume means this as realism, because real prayer at twelve is repetition. On the page, three or four of those prayers blur together. I skimmed one on reread, then felt guilty, because skimming felt like ignoring Margaret when she was most sincere.

Even so, much still holds. The move to Farbrook feels true in its details, from unpacked boxes to new street sounds. Nancy's bossiness and Gretchen's humor read as real kids rather than types. Grandma Sylvia steals every scene she enters. The parents feel loving even when they avoid hard talks. Margaret's voice stays kind when she is confused, which keeps the book warm.

The 2023 film keeps this warmth and updates little. It keeps the 1970 setting with the secret club and the party kiss. Abby Ryder Fortson plays Margaret with open curiosity. Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates bring softness to Barbara and Sylvia. If you watch after reading, notice how much the film trusts small looks and hallway pauses. It understands that sixth grade drama is drama.

I closed the 192 page Atheneum edition thinking about my own sixth grade notebook, full of lists and wishes. Margaret does not end with a label for faith or a perfect body or a steady boyfriend. She ends with more honesty about what she wants and a little more patience with waiting. For a book with such a small plot, that felt like enough. It does not tell kids who to be. It tells them they are not strange for asking, and that asking can be a form of company until answers arrive.

FAQ

When was Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret published?

It was first published in 1970 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers. The standard edition runs 192 pages.

What religion is Margaret?

She has none yet. Her mother was raised Christian and her father was raised Jewish, and they left the choice to her.

Is there a film version?

Yes. A film was released in 2023 starring Abby Ryder Fortson as Margaret, with Rachel McAdams as her mother and Kathy Bates as Grandma Sylvia.