Margaret Simon is an eleven year old girl who has recently moved from New York City to a suburb in New Jersey.  She quickly makes friends and they form a pre-teen secret club.  They discuss bras, menstruation, and boys.  Margaret struggles with her lack of a formal religion.  Her father is Jewish and her mother Christian which created strife within their extended family.  She talks to God but claims she doesn’t have a religion which baffles her secret club friends.

• Appropriate target audience: Girls ages 8-12

• Strengths: This book faces the real life conflicts of growing up.  The language is simple but middle school is not.  Blume does not shy away from topics of religion and puberty. Children ages 8-12 will be able to identify with these issues and realize they are not alone in this strange new world of adolescence.

• Weaknesses: The book is written for a white middle class girl.  There is no diversity in Margaret’s friends or family.

• Meaningful/creative uses:  Have a pre-teen girls club!  Have a guest speaker come in from Elea Blake Cosmetics to show the girls how to take care of their skin and use age appropriate make up.  Have the girls journal and have open discussions.                                   2. Because Margaret’s “Dear God” is similar to a girl’s “Dear Diary,” give children a blank journal and let them creatively decorate it and then have fun writing in it!  Giving them the option to create a lock for it as well.

• Awards:  1970 Outstanding Book of the Year, New York Times                                                         2005 Time Magazine All-Time 100 Novels List

• Other: This book has frequented ALA’s top 100 banned books.  It has been banned due to its frank sexual discussions and purported anti-Christian ideas.

• Read- a-likes:      Blubber by Judy Blume                                                                                     Published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers; Reprint edition: New York, 2014                  Linda does a report on whales.  She is 20 pounds or so overweight and the class begins to call her “Blubber.”  Even Jill who knows it’s wrong calls her “Blubber.”