Is There An "Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret" For Boys?

Mrs. H is, like (I suppose) a lot of Gen-X women, excited about this beloved book from her childhood being made into a movie.

As a boy of that age, I only really remember one (fiction) book that dealt with puberty from a boy’s perspective. *

> Then Again, Maybe I Won’t

  • was, as I remember it, less about puberty and more about the protagonsit getting in over his head, while going through puberty. Or something. It mentioned wet dreams and springing wood in class, something that all of us lads went through.

Are there any other books about boys and puberty that are treasured five decades later? (or recent ones, I suppose)

There needs to be a parody of sorts: “Are You There, Satan, It’s Me, Donald?”, a coming of age story.

Among the better ones I remember…

It’s Like This, Cat by Emily Neville

Then there were more with the main character in high school, such as this one…

If I Love You, Am I Trapped Forever? by M. E. Kerr

… and a few others that weren’t as specifically aimed at a young-boy audience but included an ensemble of major characters. Like

My Darling, My Hamburger by Paul Zindel

… I don’t recall any that were aimed at a male target audience quite as young as Are You There God, to be sure.

They’re making a movie out of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret? I hope the target audience is 50-65.

I’m the right age, but it doesn’t sound like a good idea to me either.

Really? I think it’s money in the bank. I’m neither a woman nor a parent of a girl who has gone through/will go through puberty, but it would seem to me that half the moms in this country have given their copy of that book to their daughters. And it’s got Kathy Bates. I see the audience being 90 percent female, and of that 90%, half girls 10-14, the other half adult women who remember the book.

Actually the trailer makes it look kinda cute. I don’t recall the book being very amusing. Probably because I was a tween girl!

If it’s directed at people who remember it from the 1970s, it’s funny, trust me.

ETA: funny to think this book was controversial when it came out-- like, Lolita-level controversial.

I read it for the second time just before I started college (because my local library branch had a Spanish translation, and I wanted to practice my Spanish and found that older children’s books were about right for my reading level). I can confirm that if you are even slightly older than the intended audience, it is HILARIOUS. I completely missed the humor the first time through, when I was eight or nine and saw it as a window into Important Grown-Up Secrets.

I (a male) read it back in the day, and I think I’m a better person for it. I got a perspective about what half of my peers have to deal with. I don’t remember any humor in it, but I’m sure it was there. (“We must! We must! We must increase our bust!”)

I’m glad we no longer live in a society where a frank discussion of menarche is salacious and controversial. Christ.

Another novel in this category: Chad Kultgen’s Men, Women, and Children (2011), which was adapted for the screen in 2014.

This sprang to my mind as the obvious answer to the thread title’s question, since it was Judy Blume’s followup to Margaret. I remember having a box set of five Judy Blume books as a kid, which included both of these.

I immediately thought of The Outsiders, however S.E. Hutton’s book may skew a bit older. Or maybe not? I know I read Margaret a good 5 years before Outsiders and remember it feeling more adult. But that was a long, long time ago.

I was just too old to read these as a kid. I’ve read both now since I retired. Margaret I liked, but I loved The Outsiders.

I haven’t read the Judy Blume book, but reading the wiki summary, the film that leaps to mind is Stand By Me, which is based on The Body, by Stephen King. So maybe The Body?

Good one!

ETA: However, we may be drifting into Lord of the Flies territory because it seems pre-teen boys tend toward the more, well, violent even though it’s the girls with all the blood.

The trailer looks hilarious. I’ll watch it for the nostalgia. However… while I’m familiar with the topic of the book, and am a Judy Blume fan, I’ve not read this one. More importantly to the topic, though, I don’t really know what it means to the people who have read it, and in particular, to girls/women who’ve read it.

I’m tempted to say Catcher in the Rye is the boys’ equivalent, but similarly, I’ve never actually asked a girl/woman what’s she’s thought about it, and only now realize that this book as a high school assignment is really sexist (or I forget how it was handled male vs. female).

Wouldn’t Charles Bukowski maybe have breifly tried his hand at that? There’s a vague recollection of one or two short stories with that subject.

You sure about that?

Anyway, getting back to the topic of the thread, I think A Separate Peace fits well into the boys-coming-of-age genre.