# 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:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/21 "2023-01-15T20:15:31Z")
There are plenty of books about boys going through puberty, but very few for which going through puberty is the primary conflict of the book. Usually there’s a war or something to provide conflict. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/22 "2023-01-15T20:39:41Z")
In the UK, we had The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 and 3/4. Adrian is a socially awkward working class boy with one cooler friend, parents going through a divorce, a habit of measuring the size of his thingie, and a terrible crush on middle class Pandora. He also has literary ambitions, hence the keeping of the diary and his habit of writing love poetry: “Pandora! I adore ya. I implore ye Don’t ignore me” Puberty is only part of what he’s dealing with, but author Sue Townsend does have a pretty good insight to the anxieties (spots, shaving, size of thingie) that go alongside general worries about what to wear to the school disco, his parents, the Falklands War etc. A very helpful book, in that it functioned both as a reassurance that all this was normal, and a guide to what not to do vis a vis girls and indeed rulers. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/23 "2023-01-15T21:13:59Z")
> [@Stanislaus](#): > > In the UK, we had The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 and 3/4. That was the first book that came to my mind as well. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/24 "2023-01-15T21:31:49Z")
That’s a book I haven’t thought about in a while. How are the sequels? (There are sequels, right?). ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/25 "2023-01-15T21:40:13Z")
Haven’t read them all, but they’re pretty well thought of. They continue right into the New Labour era, with Adrian wetly ineffective as some form of local councillor and Pandora a rising star. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/26 "2023-01-15T21:42:13Z")
Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/27 "2023-01-15T21:48:58Z")
I have almost no expertise in this question because I’m neither a teenager nor have kids, but wasn’t “Diary Of A Wimpy Kid” a big success on the market of pubescent boys? I don’t know if it handles every aspect of puberty of boys (especially sexuality), but at least I remember that my nephew who is now 23 loved it as a teenager. > **[Diary of a Wimpy Kid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diary_of_a_Wimpy_Kid)** > > Diary of a Wimpy Kid is an American children's book series and media franchise created by author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney. The series follows Greg Heffley, a middle-schooler who illustrates his daily life in a diary (although he constantly tells the audience that it is a journal). > Kinney spent 8 years working on the book before showing it to a publisher. In 2004, FunBrain and Kinney released an online version of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The website made daily entries from September 2004 to Ju... ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/28 "2023-01-15T22:04:39Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > 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). One on my favorite books. I first read it as a thirteen year old girl. Holden treats women like people. He’s pressured not to, but he can’t help but do it, which is why he reacts with violence when Stradlater implies he’s going to take advantage of a girl Holden genuinely likes. Holden doesn’t seem to have conscious awareness that he’s in love with the girl, but he’s caught up on the quirky way she plays checkers. And at one point he visits a sex worker but can’t go through with it. He wants only to talk instead. I think the book is at least partly about the social pressure toward misogyny and Holden’s resistance to it. Good for boys, good for girls. Probably not taught in school at all these days given all the mature content, and that’s a shame. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/29 "2023-01-17T19:25:54Z")
My nominee as well. Ironically, written by a middle aged woman, Sue Townsend. There was a TV series in the 1980s that captured the book quite well. It would be great to have Adrian in a movie. I suspect Bridget Jones was inspired by Adrian. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222/30 "2023-01-17T22:21:45Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > [It’s Like This, Cat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Like_This,_Cat) by Emily Neville I remember that one, good book! Also E. M. Konigsburg’s [About the B’nai Bagels.](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/About-the-Bnai-Bagels/E-L-Konigsburg/9781416957980) Not much about physical aspects of male puberty (except for a couple discreet references to a stashed Playboy magazine) but a lot about social aspects, in particular as the Jewish protagonist approaches his bar mitzvah. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-for-boys/978222.md?page=1)