Rating: 
Summary: a must read for mother and daughter
Review: I read this book and reviewed it for our Mother/Daughter Book Club. I have recommended it to many friends. Blume has a humorous and disarming way of presenting real-life issues in the lives of pre-adolescent girls. My daughter and I have enjoyed reading this book together and have had many meaningful and delightful conversations as a result of this book. I am particularly pleased with the way the issue of G-d and religious choice has been addressed. Our girls face many choices in their lives, some religion based and some not. Reading this book together has given my daughter and I yet another opportunity to discuss our committment to Judiasm as well as our moral and ethical beliefs and foundation. I can't wait for our mother/daughter book club discussion about this book!
Rating:
Summary: excellent book
Review: i read this book when i was young, about 10 or twenty times!
i loved it then and now. maragret felt just as i did and was afraid to admit alot of her feelings
i am going to by this book for my 11 yr. old daughter.
Rating:
Summary: A book that helped me through puberty
Review: I was given this book at age 10 or 11 and it helped me ALOT to deal with the changes going on in my body and mind. I'm saving it for my daughter who'll be ready to read it in a couple years. Parents: An excellent book to give your daughters(and sons!) to learn about puberty and REALISTIC reactions to it by a girl and her friends and family.
Rating: 
Summary: An unrealistic view of a sixth-grader.
Review: I read this book when I was in sixth grade and could not relate at all. Though my body was changing just like Margaret's, I did not find it to be nearly as exciting. The vast majority of girls in my class didn't do brainless things like making lists of boys they liked. Sure, there were boys we found appealing, but we didn't get together and talk about it ad nauseum like the PTS's. When we got together we did things like playing basketball and Battleship, like any non-neurotic eleven year olds would do. And a bra was just a normal thing that you could wear or not wear and no one cared. Also, any human being enrolled in elementary school cannot even come close to comprehending something as abstract as a God. Most adults can't even grasp it, so why should an eleven-year-old's relationship with a higher power be portrayed as so complex? This mediocre novel teaches pre-teen girls to be unnaturally over-dramatic about their changing bodies. I wouldn't be surprised if sixth-grade girls all over the country read it and laughed hysterically the whole way through.
Rating:
Summary: great pre-teen reading
Review: I had a little trouble with reading as a child, but after reading this book, I was so interested, I wanted to read it again. Young girls can really relate to this story first hand. It also may answer things that they may not want to talk about with anyone. I tell all you young friends to look for this book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I read this as a young girl and have since recommended it to many friends with pre-teen daughters/nieces, etc. It made me feel like I wasn't the only one going through all that stuff - boys, bra's, periods, parties, etc. and it made me laugh. I read the book so many times, I broke the spine in a few places. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Are You There God? It's one good book
Review: I have read this book at LEAST five times and feel it has helped me deal with some of MY problems growing up. I am basicly a real live Margaret and recomend buying this book. It will be worth every penny. If you have or are a girl facing growing up and liking guys getting this book will help pull you through and make you laugh when you are down
Rating:
Summary: A Book to Help Any Girl Through Her Problems
Review: This is the story of Margaret Simon, a girl who just moved to a new town, and is trying to cope with the problems of becoming a teen-ager. Slowly, with encouragement from her mother, grandmother, and friends, she learns how to deal with boys and other growing-up problems
Rating: 
Summary: So unrealistic, it's hilarious.
Review: I can't relate to anything these girls were going through. I was busty at grade 6 and it was annoying as hell, so it's not all that great. I also got my period at grade six, I didn't tell my mom to "come see, come see" and all that crap. At grade six we had fights, we gossipped and spread rumours, slapped our enemies, played chinese jump rope, walked around and did nothing, played on the playstructure, hung upside down on bars... we didn't do any of the stuff that JB focusses on - we were never that open about our period or our boobs. We didn't form clubs that gave us sheets to rate a guy, or tips on how to increase your bust size and get a bigger bra. There weren't even clubs, period. Not only that, but who get's that hung up in a rumour? Margaret needs to smarten up, and at grade six that's gotta be old enough to realize that you can't completely believe what someone - even a good friend - tells you. I hated her emotional problems, her personality, everything about her and it was hell ploughing through the book knowing that there would be one more page about dear old Margaret. Grade six is nothing like what JB says it is - everybody's fun and easy going and all the girls just wanna have fun. And at fourteen, it's still like that - the flat people don't care that much, none of us obsess about boys, or being popular, or blah blah blah. The religious part was meaningless in my opinion, and I thought it was crazy how she was walking from one religion to another - if you're going to pick a religion, you need to some actual research, not listen to what your friend's say about it. This book is best read by someone who's bypassed Margaret's grade, age, and problems so that way you won't be fed with trash and can realize how ridiculous this book is.
Rating:
Summary: Tug of War over Religion
Review: Margaret Simon dreads leaving NY city to move to a town in NJ, where she will start in a new school. Making friends does not prove to be a problem after all, plus her entire 6th grade class
has to break in a brand new teacher. Still there are two underlying themes which cause her great concern: one is the slow growth of her body into maturity. She and the other Pre Teen Sensations obsess over filling their bras and getting their periods. (This book is definitely not of interest to boys.) The serious issue, however, is her dual religious heritage. The only chld of a Christian mother and a Jewish father, Margaret is a pawn in a tug of war on the part of her grandparents in the opposing camps. Her parents prefer to raise her to be Nothing--calmly assuming that she wil be able to make up her mind as a young adult without any guidance from either of them. Meanwhile Margaret carries on private conversations with God in her own mind, confiding to him as if by phone--begging him to reveal himself to her and reminding him to help her body mature. When
she has a big fight with God over a grandparent disaster, she stops talking to him. The author does not resolve Margaret's religious dilemma. How will she make up with God--if she still believes in him? There is also a more subtle theme about not believing vicious gossip about people you don't really know. Also a mild warning about the issues of pre teen posturing and snobbery. A good read if you are entering 6th grade.
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