Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret.

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"Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret."
Judy Blume, 1970.

The most contraversial book on the first for myself, I remember walking into Dymocks and asking the clerk where I could find "Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret." When she began walking I pictured a gray covered book with a distraught mexican migrant, the tale being her woe and grit and determination to make it in a world that didn't care about.

When we headed to the children's section I began having my doubts. When were standing before a shelf of pink books and she handed me one with a white training bra and pink love hearts on it, I knew I'd grossly mistaken what the book would be about. I guess that's another +1 for the old saying Don't judge a book by it's cover, or in this case, title.

Are you there, God? is written by Judie Blume, who also wrote the famous Fudge/Super Fudge series and Tales of a Fourth Grade nothing. My year four class was read this in year four, and I remember even then being ashamed at my classmates for being so blatantly bored by an interesting reading.

Margaret is a girl going through puberty. The book is barely over 100 pages long and deals with amazingly common, deep personal problems. It's written for little girls. The contraversy here was with the book being published in 1970s, when things were a lot more hush hush then they are today, as well as having little girls talk openly about things like boobs, getting your period and pretty much the nauseating adventure through puberty. I remember my own, you can no doubt remember yours. There was nothing better than finding someone with whom I could sit down and discuss things with on a level playing field, and this book is pretty much that same thing, only in ink and paper.

The main crux of the book is Margaret's prayers to God, asking for several things related to fitting in, but focusing on which religion she should take on, her mother's or her father's, being Catholic and Jewish.

Are you there, God? It's me, Contraversy.

Apart from feeling a little weird about listening in on a little girl's thoughts, the book is a very touching experience for a white male who's in his mid twenties. Growing up, developing, I quickly delegated all thoughts about "Developing wrong" to "I don't care, I'm pretty much me no matter what I do" and forgetting about them. To read the other side of the story is a unique look into a world I've often wondered and dreamt about, that of the female.

Aside from being embarassed at the grose misunderstanding of the book, I'm glad to see Time putting the book on their top 100 novels list, it confirmed that I would be reading books I'd never heard about before, and not just the books all your friends are raving about and telling you are "Must reads". Nothing turns my ears off quicker then someone saying "You gotta X, it'll change your life."

I'd site Are you there, God? as the most contraversial choice for the list, seeing it's probably the one and only book little girls could read (I'm imagining 8 year olds here). The list surely isn't for them, not at 8 atleast, so isn't it a waste of a slot? Surely Brave New World or another, more worthy and above ADULT book deserved the slot?

I say not at all. I'm proud to have read the book, have already sited how it's lengthens the depth of the 100 novels and kind of giggle everytime I see the book on my shelf, sitting between Clockwork Orange and Grapes of Wrath. The only other book that I found truly contraversial is Naked Lunch, which has the honour of being the only book I've read, ever, that made me honestly consider putting it down due to content, not for lack of brilliance.

If you've got a younger female relative, buy them this book as it'll be a voice they care share thoughts with and offers them a gasp of fresh relief, when they realise No, it's certainly not just them going through this. And get it for yourself, because it's a unique point of view.

And don't get this confused with Lolita. Both books are about little girls, yes, but from completely different ends of the spectrum.