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New York, 9:45 AM
Wed Nov 25
57 posts in the last 24 hours
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05/01/09
I too was incredibly surprised when I got my period and there were no belts. I remember my mom laughing and saying they were from Ye Olden Tymes. A bit disappointing, actually!
Love the memory of reading this. I still have it.
05/02/09
05/01/09
now if someone would please point out a book of the same caliber for my 12yr old son. . . .
05/03/09
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05/01/09
I seriously only just read Are Your There God It's Me Margaret very recently, like a couple months ago, along with Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. I had no interest in Judy Blume books when I was young, and am trying to catch up now.
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05/01/09
I too have made that shift from feeling like I was Margaret to remembering what it was like to be a little girl reading about Margaret. Sometimes characters in books still seem older than I am, even when I've grown far beyond their concerns. I remember feeling the same desperation about having my period, though I never had to pray for breasts. I didn't get the big deal about her not having religion, or how pushy her grandparents were about it--I always thought her mother's parents were awful, even before I knew just what it was to disown your child--and I was always a little uncomfortable about how queen-bee Nancy was. Did you ever notice how in Margaret's consciousness, there were literally no other girls in their class besides the four of them and Laura Danker? I'd have loved to see what became of Nancy in another four years.
05/01/09
Sidenote: I kept reading "Farbrook" as "Facebook" and knew technology had ruined my life.
After I read this book, before I got my period, I asked my mother if you still had to attach your pad to your belt (which freaked me out for days) and she replied "Uhm not since the 70s"
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05/01/09
I always think about how Margaret saw her brother? father? mowing the lawn and then she went into the toilet and saw she got her period. I also think about "we must increase our bust!"
05/01/09
05/01/09
On the plus side, I'm 8 years older than you, so there's no way I could possibly be in your boob journal :D
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05/01/09
Anyway. I remember hating Nancy, yes. But as for Margaret, I can't remember enough about her to know if I identified with her at all. I think I might have to add this to my summer reading list. Fine Lines always makes me want to go to Barnes & Noble and spend hours and dollars finding and buying books like this to hoard in my burrow.
YAY FINE LINES!!!!!!!! YAY LIZZIE!!!!!!!
/yelling
05/01/09
I imagine the text now seems thin or not as compelling simply because we've grown up and are not investing margaret with all of our anxieties and fantasies...
05/01/09
05/01/09
I think I've read that third one, and it is going to drive me insane. The odds of me remembering are low as I'm pretty sure it was one of those one-off weird horror style YA books that I read in my elementary school's library as I pretended not to have noticed that the rest of my class had returned to math class.
Glad you're back!
05/01/09
Ha.
05/01/09
@Steve_Holt: There were so many of those books that leukemia nearly felt like an inevitable part of puberty. First training bras, then chemo.
@some obscure reference: Because they were everywhere and dying young dramatically is many a teenager's wish, so those scenarios are burned into your brain in the "you'll be sorry" aresnal folder. Or, you know, maybe that was just me.