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No. This book is not some smutty romance novel. You sicko.
It's the the 1960s and Margaret, the protagonist of this book, is a sixth-grade girl who is struggling over the issue of faith. Her mother is a Christian and her father is Jewish, but up until that point she considered herself non-religious. She also deals with the issues of growing up and puberty, such as periods, liking boys, getting her first bra and being jealous of girls who grew breasts sooner, hence the book cover.
Are You There God? It's Me Margaret. is generally considered to be a Young Adult novel and was written by Judy Blume in 1970. Because it has puberty and the questioning of religious faith as a large part of its subject matter, it was also subsequently banned from many school libraries and reading lists.
Made into a movie in 2023 with a cast including Kathy Bates as Margaret's paternal grandmother, Rachel McAdams as Margaret's mom and newcomer Abby Ryder Fortson as Margaret.
Tropes used in Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. include:
- A-Cup Angst: A major plot point is Margaret and her friends being frustrated over the fact that they haven't started developing breasts yet.
- Against My Religion: A holiday choral concert divides Margaret's class along religious lines, with the Christians refusing to sing Hanukkah songs and the Jewish students refusing to sing Christmas songs.
- Alpha Bitch: Nancy.
- Big Breasts, Big Deal / Buxom Is Better: The former is both a Type 1 and a Type 2 with Laura Danker, while the latter is both played straight and subverted. A major plot point is Margaret and other girls being frustrated at not having developed breasts yet and being jealous of Laura having already developed large breasts. However, she dislikes them because they get her made fun of and a lot of unwanted male attention.
- Coming of Age Story
- Cool Old Lady: Margaret's Jewish grandmother.
- Fake Boobs: Cotton balls.
- Fascinating Eyebrow: Margaret can raise one eyebrow and does it occasionally to get adults to stop asking her questions. She doesn't know why it has that effect, but it does.
- Four-Girl Ensemble: More like the "Four Pre-Teen Sensations" — Gretchen is the somewhat mannish one, Janie is shy and sweet, Nancy is a bit of a slut wannabe, and Margaret is the narrator who sees everything.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Prominent throughout the book. Margaret is continuously jealous of various factors involved with puberty; Laura Denker having large breasts, her crush paying attention to other girls, and not getting her period before her friends.
- Hormone Addled Preteens: The book was written in 1970 when it was taboo to talk about puberty outside of health class, so at the time Margaret and her friends may have come off as one of these.
- I Have No Son: Or I have no daughter, or I have no son in law. Part of the plot involves Margaret's grandparents on her mother's side disowning her mother because they are religious bigots and did not want her to marry Margaret's Jewish father. This is why Margaret is raised with no religion. They later express a desire to reconcile, though only with her, and not the father, whom they don't even mention in their letter and act as if doesn't exist when they come to visit. When they find out Margaret is still being raised without religion, they decide to leave earlier than planned, making it clear they don't want a reconciliation if Margaret isn't being raised Christian and that they will again estrange themselves from their daughter.
- By contrast, Margaret's paternal grandmother, while she wasn't thrilled about her son marrying a Christian, accepted his life choice and is civil to her daughter-in-law (though she does try sometimes to undermine Barbara's parental authority). She is, however, as adamant that Margaret be Jewish as the other grandparents are that she be Christian; she's just taken the religious education role upon herself.
- Jewish Grandmother
- Jewish Best Friend: Gretchen, one of the Four PTS's, is Jewish, while Nancy and Janie are Christians.
- The Joy of X: Are You There, God? It's Me, X The originator of this variant.
- Malicious Slander: Nancy Wheeler spreads rumors that Laura Danker has fooled around with boys due to her jealousy over Laura's big breasts. Margaret believes them until Laura calls her out on it, telling her how much she despises her chest because of the things people say about her. Margaret is immediately sorry.
- Moral Guardians: None of the potential reasons for banning this book were very good. Nowadays at least. Is it bad to have an open, but non-religious relationship with God? Is it possible that by not letting your daughters read a tasteful first-hand account of puberty, it will end up like smoking and drugs and be one of those things that they never do?
- Naive Everygirl: Margaret.
- She's actually listed as an alternate name on the trope's page!
- No Periods, Period: The puberty exception. This is a major plot point of the book. Margaret and her friends are greatly looking forward to starting their periods and are frustrated that they haven't, to the point where Nancy lies about getting hers. Margaret gets extremely upset as her two friends get theirs before she does. She ends up being the next to last one to get hers. Also, Nancy gets extremely upset when she does get hers for real.
- Educating girls about menstruation seems to have been an important part of the book: the newer editions have even been updated so that, instead of describing belts and such, Margaret now uses modern sanitary napkins.
- Not So Different: Sylvia Simon is just as pushy about nudging Margaret toward Judaism as Margaret's maternal grandparents are in pushing her toward Christianity; she's just hipper and more loving in her approach.
- Race Lift: Margaret's friend Janie is Black in the movie adaptation.
- She Is All Grown Up: Not fully played out in the usual way, but Margaret's father tells her this after she starts wearing bras.
- The Sixties: The novel takes place in this time period, although it was written right at the start of The Seventies.
- Spin the Bottle: The girls play this game with their classmates at a birthday party, but come to the conclusion that it's lame and decide to play "two minutes in the closet" instead.
- Sweater Girl: Laura Danker wears one of these because she's the only one in her sixth grade class with breasts big enough to pull this trope off.
- Technology Marches On: Original editions of the book have Margret being instructed on how to wear a belt to hold her menstrual pad in place. These days said pads use a light adhesive to stick to underwear.
- Ten Minutes in the Closet: Margaret and her classmates play this at a birthday party, except it's "Two Minutes in the Closet", and they don't have a big enough closet, so they use a bathroom instead.
- Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma: God is being addressed. Therefore, it should be Are You There, God? This has bugged readers for decades. Some newer editions have altered the title to account for this.
- With Friends Like These...: Nancy is, well, not exactly a supportive friend to Margaret or anyone else. She body-shames Margaret and the other PTS's for the size of their chests (while at the same time spreading nasty gossip about fully-developed Laura Danker) and, in Gretchen's case, for being plus-sized. And she lies about getting her period before she actually gets it, only for Margaret to witness Nancy's actual first period. Margaret finally realizes not everything Nancy has told her is true, but it doesn't stop her from being her friend.