# Is There An "Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret" For Boys? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [January 14, 2023, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222 "2023-01-14T17:25:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/1 "2023-01-14T17:25:14Z")
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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMMd72F53x4). 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](https://www.amazon.com/Then-Again-Maybe-I-Wont/dp/B09CZGYHBG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3FVS6ST2LKANM&keywords=then+again+maybe+i+won%27t+judy+blume&qid=1673717005&sprefix=then+again+m%2Caps%2C117&sr=8-1) - 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) ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/2 "2023-01-14T17:41:40Z")
There needs to be a parody of sorts: “Are You There, Satan, It’s Me, Donald?”, a coming of age story. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/3 "2023-01-14T17:52:07Z")
Among the better ones I remember… [It’s Like This, Cat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_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?](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/560247.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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/4 "2023-01-14T17:59:58Z")
They’re making a movie out of _Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret_? I hope the target audience is 50-65. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/5 "2023-01-14T18:02:24Z")
I’m the right age, but it doesn’t sound like a good idea to me either. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/6 "2023-01-14T18:06:54Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/7 "2023-01-14T18:26:43Z")
Actually the trailer makes it look kinda cute. I don’t recall the book being very amusing. Probably because I was a tween girl! ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/8 "2023-01-14T18:29:13Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/9 "2023-01-14T18:42:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/10 "2023-01-14T18:45:43Z")
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!”) ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/11 "2023-01-14T18:52:17Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > ETA: funny to think this book was controversial when it came out-- like, Lolita-level controversial. I’m glad we no longer live in a society where a frank discussion of menarche is salacious and controversial. Christ. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/12 "2023-01-14T22:10:36Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > a few others that weren’t as specifically aimed at a young-boy audience but included an ensemble of major characters Another novel in this category: Chad Kultgen’s _Men, Women, and Children_ (2011), which was adapted for the screen in 2014. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/13 "2023-01-14T22:18:55Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > > Then Again, Maybe I Won’t 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. > **[Then Again, Maybe I Won't](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Then_Again,_Maybe_I_Won%27t)** > > Then Again, Maybe I Won't is a young adult novel written by Judy Blume. Intended for pre-teens and teenagers, the novel deals with puberty from a 1970s male perspective as well as the other trials of growing up. > Twelve-year-old Tony Miglione lives with his blue-collar family in Jersey City, New Jersey. After his family becomes wealthy from his father's sale of his electronics invention, the family moves to the fictional upper-class community of Rosemont, New York, on Long Island. His mother bec... ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/14 "2023-01-14T22:26:01Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/15 "2023-01-14T23:03:47Z")
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._ ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/16 "2023-01-15T00:08:47Z")
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_? ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/17 "2023-01-15T00:18:59Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/18 "2023-01-15T02:17:46Z")
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). ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/19 "2023-01-15T06:50:56Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/20 "2023-01-15T07:11:46Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > I’m glad we no longer live in a society where a frank discussion of menarche is salacious and controversial. Christ. You sure about that? > **[Why are people so mad over Pixar’s delightful Turning Red?](https://www.vox.com/culture/22981394/turning-red-reviews-controversy-reactions-parents)** > > Turning Red’s biggest offense may just be its unapologetic weirdness. Anyway, getting back to the topic of the thread, I think _A Separate Peace_ fits well into the boys-coming-of-age genre. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222.md?page=2)