What a powerful little book. Sure, it is a coming of age story about a pre-teen girl in the late 1960s, early 1970s, but it feels like a story with lessons and ideas that are important to everyone in any era. I can see why this is on many must read lists.Simply written – it can be read in one or two sittings. This is a great thing for those looking for a quick and entertaining read in the midst of a busy schedule. No great commitment is required to get through this one. And, you may find more co...

I was a little scrap of a white girl, growing up, and the daughter of Midwestern parents as well. Mom and Dad were sheltered, small town people who had been relocated to the subtropics of South Florida and raised their children there. Our family was an island of conservatism and traditionalism among an extremely multicultural sea.Our quiet, casserole-eating crew had very good manners, and spoke quietly, but we spoke not of feelings, and we deferred always to Dad's opinions. In contrast, our Hisp...

The first thing Margaret asks God is "Don't let New Jersey be too horrible," so you know she's in for a rough time with God. The second thing she asks for is boobs. What makes Blume so wonderful - well, there are lots of things, but one of them is that she respects her audience, which is specifically 12-year-old girls and no one else. She's tackling big subjects here - puberty and God, so that's half of the entire list of Big Subjects - and she respects their difficulty. Margaret is the product ...

I'm feeling very nostalgic today.

I can still remember sitting on the floor in the library and reading this book. One of my favorite authors when I was young.

If I didn't have so much to read I would read it again now. Actually if I can find my box of old books I probably will read it again. I LOVED this book :)

My absolute favourite Judy Blume book!My Personal Challenge Childhood Re-Read for the month of NovemberI can safely say this is still my favourite Judy Blume book! I started out reading my own copy. I just love that nostalgic cover! Brings back a lot of memories. I was curious how the narration would be and a quarter way through I checked out the Audio on the Cloud Library app. It was a quick and entertaining listen.I remember relating to Margaret Simon a lot when I first read this. She was 11 g...

During the final round in the 2011 Miss Universe pageant, Miss Philippines Shamcey Supsup was asked this question: ”Would you change your religious beliefs to marry the person you love? Why or why not?” Supsup answered: ”If I had to change my religious beliefs, I will not marry the person that I love. Because the first person that I love is GOD who created me. And I have my faith and my principles. And these what make makes me who I am. And if that person loves me, he should love my God to...

On the surface there should have been little in common between eleven-year-old me (mid-90s, lower middle class in the post-Soviet landscape of broken-down economy, dressing in cheap “humanitarian aid” clothes and seeing the US on TV as an almost mythical land of wealth and sparkle) and eleven-year-old Margaret Simon (1970s upper middle class suburbia of the US New England). But being an eleven-year-old girl is its own country, with its own rules and built-in challenges, and it crosses the cultur...

Isn't it pathetic that as a girl, once you learn about periods, you just can't wait to get one, and then for the rest of your life, you just wish the effers would go away? Except of course, the periods that show up JUST when you need them to- like when one is perhaps a few days late and not super confident in her decision-making skills during the last month. Those periods are probably even better than the satisfaction of that very first one.

Oh, how I do miss the 1970 edition of this book. Somehow the cute little cover girl of the new edition, what with the sparkling eyes and her head in the clouds, doesn't express the loneliness and contemplative nature of Miss M. in the same way the little girl with lank brown hair and brown knee socks did. And how else can one completely alarm and overwhelm a modern 10-year-old about the mysteries of the pubescent female body without the mention of the belt?When I first read the book, not only wa...

I first read this book in kindergarten. After getting into an argument with the PTA lady running the school book fair about whether or not I could buy the book (I thought she was trying to imply that I couldn't read it, which I found insulting) - an argument that was ultimately settled by a call home to my mom - I brought the book home and read it all on a Friday night. Up past my bedtime, I snuck downstairs, where my parents were entertaining friends, and announced that I had a question about w...