Here's a thread where cute emo girlz can talk about how <i>Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret</i> changed their lives

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And cute emo boys, if applicable.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 8 March 2003 23:20 (twenty-three years ago)

it's about her PERIOD

― jess (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 8 March 2003 23:44 (twenty-three years ago)

So as a weird kid trying to fit in and highly susceptible to peer pressure I got caught up in schoolyard fads just like everyone else, right? I had Garbage Pail Kids; I had L.A. Gear and banana clips; and I had my rite of passage with Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. It taught me about periods, bras, boys... the religion stuff I didn't care so much about b/c I gave up on religion pretty early on in my life. I think I first read this when I was eight, in second or third grade ('84/'85). Illustrated cover, purple border, probably a '70s printing bought at the (long since closed) used bookstore on Brighton Beach Ave. where I got all my "young adult novels."

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 8 March 2003 23:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Or if you're British and a boy, talk about Adrian Mole or sumfink.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 8 March 2003 23:57 (twenty-three years ago)

They took out the references to belts in the newer printings. I disapprove of this.

― rosemary (rosemary), Saturday, 8 March 2003 23:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Aw man!

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 8 March 2003 23:59 (twenty-three years ago)

I had no clue what the hell they were talking about when they were referencing those horrible sanitary napkin belts. I don't even think I had seen one until SNL recently did a commercial spoof on going old school with your panty protector. I'm 24 but still... I guess I led a very sheltered life in regards to feminie protection.

― Carey (Carey), Sunday, 9 March 2003 00:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I have to say though I thought Judy B.'s Forever did a lot more to change my life. I think I even read it after all those incestous VC Andrews books which were all the rage in 5th and 6th grade. To this day I still can't help naming boys' penises.

― Carey (Carey), Sunday, 9 March 2003 00:03 (twenty-three years ago)

I never read VC Andrews! But it was all the rage at my school too (the one I transferred to in fourth grade).

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 9 March 2003 00:10 (twenty-three years ago)

I am not a cute emo boy. My influential young adult novelists were Lois Lowry and Jean George.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Sunday, 9 March 2003 00:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Adrian Mole wasn't invented until I'd already got old.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 9 March 2003 00:11 (twenty-three years ago)

You were missing out. They were so taboo and my parents even bought them for me! VC Andrews and Jackie Collins were the shit in my school. For career day I actually considered saying that I wanted to be a mob boss (a la Lucky Santangello). But that was a pipe dream since I'm part Asian and the Asian mob is nowhere near as cool as the Italian mob. Plus me being a woman it would've been hard moving up, you know with all my lovers being shot and hits put on my family and lots of ball bustin' takin up my time.

― Carey (Carey), Sunday, 9 March 2003 00:13 (twenty-three years ago)

I am neither cute nor emo but I grew up around pretty much all women so I read a lot of Blume's books growing up. Specifically I remember a cousin about my age showing me something from Forever (the sex scene) and me going ewwww because I disliked the touchy-feely language, not because sex weirded me out. (It did not weird me out, at least not nearly as much as it probably should have.)

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 9 March 2003 00:14 (twenty-three years ago)

(he says a little too defensively cough cough)

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 9 March 2003 00:15 (twenty-three years ago)

But yeah... Are You There God... I get this book confused with all the others... Blubber, Deena... but I think this was the one where they had that chant "I must I must increase my bust." I do remember that.

― Carey (Carey), Sunday, 9 March 2003 00:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Blubber was viciously accurate. I liked Starring Sally J. Friedman as Herself the best.

Something happens to girls in the fourth grade. A switch flips, and all of a sudden it's boy-girl parties, passed notes and backstabbing galore.

― felicity (felicity), Sunday, 9 March 2003 00:34 (twenty-three years ago)

So then, Jacqueline Wilson...

I'll get my coat.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 9 March 2003 00:54 (twenty-three years ago)

i remember reading this, but first the school libraian asked me why i wanted to, wether it would be approite, whether i knew what it was about and all that stuff. i remember being deeply moved, as i was about all of the bloom.

― anthony easton (anthony), Sunday, 9 March 2003 00:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Carey, how are the yakuza and triads not as cool as the mafia???

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 9 March 2003 01:11 (twenty-three years ago)

http://southsidecallbox.com/images/yjd.jpg
http://southsidecallbox.com/images/class.jpg

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 9 March 2003 01:28 (twenty-three years ago)

me, in my "formative" years

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 9 March 2003 01:29 (twenty-three years ago)

Do you still have your hair like that? Cos you *so* should.

― Graham (graham), Sunday, 9 March 2003 01:35 (twenty-three years ago)

I wish.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 9 March 2003 01:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Jody, I think we may have had the same students and stylist for our grade school class. Except my teacher was way less fashionable than yours who is rocking the cowl neck.

― Carey (Carey), Sunday, 9 March 2003 01:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Martin, are you pro asian mobbery?

― Carey (Carey), Sunday, 9 March 2003 01:59 (twenty-three years ago)

gugyprac24: Check out the d00d rockin' the dapper tuxedo!
DivineComedian42: that class in general is damn cool...the Superman kid! The Bootsy Collins lookalike next to him!
gugyprac24: and check out the unnatural death-like pasty fragrance of the teacher's skin!
DivineComedian42: and check out bottom row, second one from the left- that's so a German exchange student!
gugyprac24: The formal-wearing fella!
gugyprac24: Now, who here would r00l the sk00L? My bets are on top row, third one from left.
DivineComedian42: that guy? Class clown, definitley. Good for a laugh, but I'd probably hate him cos he'd pull my hair.
DivineComedian42: (yes, I had the same haircut- or lack thereof- in fourth grade)
gugyprac24: I think the furthest right one on that row might be a bad-apple, too
DivineComedian42: I bet that fella signed all his papers with "esquire"
gugyprac24: Bwahahaha
gugyprac24: I'm liking the black kid in the middle row with the formal wear - a born entertainer!
DivineComedian42: oh, totally. He's Dan Perry, Jr.
DivineComedian42: needless to say, if Formal Kid isn't German, he is a young Alex In NYC, pre baptism of fire honouring.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Sunday, 9 March 2003 02:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, we're like a junior-league Sweathogs. Have you figured out who I am?

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 9 March 2003 02:17 (twenty-three years ago)

it made me wonder why the girls i knew weren't so *weird.* adrian mole rocked my world though, soooo ridiculously melodramatic.

i think the current girly-rite-of-passage book is angus, thongs, and full frontal snogging (or something titled similarly - i don't know, it's cute).

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 9 March 2003 02:18 (twenty-three years ago)

jody - second row, far right?

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 9 March 2003 02:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Yep. What a little troublemaker. :-)

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 9 March 2003 02:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Grr, maria beat me to it! And yes, Jody sure had the attit00d even back then.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Sunday, 9 March 2003 02:22 (twenty-three years ago)

I didn't think much of Are You There God? I liked Gordan Korman.

― isadora (isadora), Sunday, 9 March 2003 02:58 (twenty-three years ago)

I *loved* Gordon Korman.

DivineComedian42: and check out bottom row, second one from the left- that's so a German exchange student!
gugyprac24: The formal-wearing fella!

No doods, that's totally me (not literally, of course).

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Sunday, 9 March 2003 03:37 (twenty-three years ago)

I was pretty into Adrian Mole, even if I couldn't understand half the thing because of the British-specific slang. I flipped through one of the recent ones a little while ago but it seemed unbelievably depressing.

― slutsky (slutsky), Sunday, 9 March 2003 03:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Great kids book with good central girl character = The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson. If you start thinking it's a "christian book", say if y're paranoid like me from having been given xtian youngster's books from Sunday School etc, well don't worry it's not. Also she wrote the wonderful Bridge to Terabithia that has a great tomboy-ish character, Leslie. My copy of the Great GH has a cool cover painting of tuffgal Gilly blowing a big pink gum bubble on the front and then w/ it popped onto her face on the back [Terabithia seems to have been re-issued with a far inferior cover to the one w/ a painting of the 2 main kids by the trees w/ Leslie wearing a sports sweatshirt].

― Terabithian, Sunday, 9 March 2003 04:00 (twenty-three years ago)

And she wrote Jacob Have I Loved! I adored that book as a kid. It made me feel better because I was all insecure about my parents liking my little brothers better. And it was a really lovely book, I want to reread it now.

uh oh...I'm melting....

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 9 March 2003 04:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Jody, you should wear magenta pants more often

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 9 March 2003 04:22 (twenty-three years ago)

You've obviously never met me.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 9 March 2003 04:25 (twenty-three years ago)

when I was a kid, I read Bruce Dickinson's "the adventures of lord Iffy Boatrace".

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 9 March 2003 10:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Carey, I would never declare myself as against any murderous international criminal organisation, but I think any coolness especially associated with the mafia is well balanced by the martial arts I like to imagine goes with the SE Asian groups.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 9 March 2003 11:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Or if you're British and a boy, talk about Adrian Mole or sumfink.

A boy in my final-year primary school class kept a Norwegian Leather Industry graph taped onto the underside of his desk lid. I had no idea what this meant until many years later.

― caitlin (caitlin), Sunday, 9 March 2003 11:12 (twenty-three years ago)

I would talk about all these books, but I am not a cute emo girl. Carey is pretty much OTM about the Blume canon, though.

― Nicole (Nicole), Sunday, 9 March 2003 15:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Forever was the book that did the rounds at our school (reading it out loud in the dormitories when we went Youth Hostelling, the boys "pretending" not to listen in). I always loved Judy Blume and borrowed all the books from the library. I'm trying to get them all from charity shops now, and re-reading them. Started reading It's not the End of the World last night.

Did anyone else read Paula Danziger? I loved This place has no Atmosphere

― celeste (Celeste), Sunday, 9 March 2003 17:30 (twenty-three years ago)

My scary-smart Judy Blume that affected me was Blubber. Hadn't thought about it in a looong while. I don't think I had a boy-life-defining book. Which is probably why I don't read much fiction these days.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 9 March 2003 17:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Did anyone else read Paula Danziger?

Yes! I loved them all! Most definitely my pre-teen favorite. I liked Blume as well, but I think Paula Danziger is underrated in comparison.

― Nicole (Nicole), Sunday, 9 March 2003 17:42 (twenty-three years ago)

I love all Danziger and Young Adult fiction. M.E. Kerr was a favorite.

― felicity (felicity), Sunday, 9 March 2003 18:06 (twenty-three years ago)

This topic inspired the title of my research paper :)

― liz! (liz!), Sunday, 9 March 2003 21:46 (twenty-three years ago)

I guess I'm an emo boy because I used to read the Blume and Danziger books that my sister checked out. I don't know, it didn't seem like there were any equivalents for American boys (no Adrian Mole), so I was stuck with those. Though I liked Gordon Korman too.

― Nick A. (Nick A.), Monday, 10 March 2003 13:32 (twenty-three years ago)

AFAIK Adrian Mole is so not an equivalent of this.

Diary Of A Teenage Health-Freak is probably closer but I was too old by the time that came out.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 10 March 2003 13:35 (twenty-three years ago)

Sorry, I'm American. I was guessing.

― Nick A. (Nick A.), Monday, 10 March 2003 13:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Diary of a Teenage Health Freak was k-rub, especially the bits about head lice.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 10 March 2003 14:18 (twenty-three years ago)

To be honest I am not sure there is a British Blume equivalent, which accounts for our ghastly emotional repression.

Has anyone read any Melvyn Burgess?

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 10 March 2003 14:20 (twenty-three years ago)

i had a book as a child called "the very good friends", in which a group of animals during snowtime pass round a red cabbage

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 10 March 2003 14:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I read the Chalet School books and felt quite grown up when I graduated to Sweet Valley Twins/High. I read Judy Blume but sorry, nothing happening. Already too repressed, I imagine the little me tearing through it and then going back to Mallory Towers.

― Sarah (starry), Monday, 10 March 2003 14:34 (twenty-three years ago)

for some reason when i was like 7 i read all the important judy books-margeret, forever & Blubber.
I remember when i asked my mother what a sheath was. She asked me if i were talking about a condom or a sword sheath. i quickly changed itso she thought i were reading king arthur. lol

Those books were life changing. i remember specifically readig forever without a cover in my room on a sunday while my sister played music loud.

The high school came and I started to read those pathetic Sweet valley books-I devoured ALL of them.
Its only now i realised what rubbish they were. I remember when they tried to do a book about 'Period's in which Elizabeth got hers but Jessica didnt. The book was so self centred like all of them and didnt actually try to deal with the whole aspect of getting one. the worstthing is i forgot the message (before i re-read it) in margret, if i hadnt i probably wouldnt have re acted so badly when i got mine.

― Mac T, Friday, 14 March 2003 13:56 (twenty-three years ago)

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Here's a thread where cute emo girlz can talk about how Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret changed their lives