Lost Book Club - "Are you there God, it's me Margaret" by Judy Blume

Did anyone have any flashback seeing this title? I have to say, I never read this one as a wee one. I actually picked this book up from my library a few days before my 29th birthday. I told the librarian working (my favorite one) that I was probably the oldest person to ever check this book out for themselves that wasn't required reading of some kind.

For the at least 2 men who read this blog (Hi Dad! Hi Ollie!) this might be a little weird for you. But welcome to the mind of a 12 year old girl.

So basically the story (which I might be the last girl on the planet to read) is about our 11 year old narrator and how she moves to a new city and how it scares her. She will be moving farther away from her paternal grandmother with whom she is very close. She's an only child so when she needs to "talk something out" to someone she talks to God. (I think it's so nice that she introduces herself. You figure God has a lot of people talking to him so a heads up on who it is is appreciated I'm sure.)

Her worries are a lot of the same worries that every preteen has: am I going to ever get boobs? If I get my period last does that mean my insides are broken? I don't need to wear deodorant yet do I? I don't think people start smelling until they are 12...

Here's the thing about this story.

 I want to be like "Margaret, it gets better! You'll all eventually start wearing bras and having your periods and no one cares. They both will be become almost life long hassles so curb your enthusiasm!"

 But the kind of crappy thing is that it's hard to shake the feeling that you need to compare yourself to your peers to see if you're "normal." It stops being about when you get your period and start wearing bras and starts becoming about who you're dating, what your job is, how much you make, what your house looks like, how fast your kids start talking etc etc etc until the end of your life.

It'd be nice to be like "Oh thank God we all grew out of that at 12 and now all we worry about is world peace and curing cancer". But it just isn't so. (But we should all maybe try a little more to care more about curing cancer than if if your friend has a nicer car that you do. That person may be in debt up to their eyeballs and eating ramen every night just because they are trying to keep up some facade. You don't know).

I think I'm rambling.

Anyway. This should pretty much be required reading for 12 year olds. It's also been on banned books lists, which I can only assume was a group of men who were uncomfortable with a book that talks about periods and boobs. (Shrugs shoulders).

What does this have to do with LOST? : Uh, feeling ill at ease in a foreign situation? That's my guess. I don't know. Off to a bad start.