I am sooooo thrilled that Fine Lines is back, thank you!
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!
@SomeAuthorGirl: I remember seeing belts in the drugstore in the early 80s, but I've never used one. Later editions have changed that part, and I remember reading one and feeling like I'd lost something! I read my own copy to pieces. It had that cover, too.
Wow - I don't remember the religion aspects of this book AT ALL. I do remember Nancy's postcard being a lie, and the belts. Not much else, though. There are a ton of pivotal YA books in my life, this wasn't quite one of them. SO FREAKING HAPPY to see this column's back, though!!!!!
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.
Damn! I read that "Why me?" book. The girl's name was Rachel, and she was adopted. I remember it because she she was so severely limited to what she could eat, and one day, she was so fed up that she decided she would binge eat cherry pie with ice cream, and that is when she got a phone call from her birth mother.
@cheshirecounty: "Why me?" was a staple in my collection. My mother then read it and brought it into class to give to her students who have dialysis. (She teaches kids who often have multiple impairments, so it gets a lot of play.)
I haven't read this in so long, but I nearly wore out the copy I got when I was 7 or 8. My mother didn't know what I was reading, and thank God for it. I don't know that she would have taken them away, but she was surprised later that they were at all explicit. She doesn't always know she's awesome.
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.
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"
@Kate.the.Great: My life has been similarly ruined. I was reading a 19th century novel last week, and the author used the word titter. I miss the days when my double-take would have been for adolescent amusement and not anachronism disorientation. I also miss not have a strong association for the word helicopter and knowing how to spell ludicrous without much hesitation.
Anybody read The Talking Earth by Jean Craighead George? I had forgotten the title and all until I googled some keywords just a minute ago, but it was a favorite of my childhood. It's kind of cheesy and Captain Planet-y, I don't know if it's "classic" enough to be in this column.
This is one of my favorite "swears." I actually said it out loud at the ATM the other day. "Dear God! It's Me Margaret!"
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!"
AYTGIMM was such an awesome book. I just re-read it, and JB really did nail exactly what it felt like to be that age, at least the way that I felt. My friends and I were completely flat-chested at 12 (I'm 25 now, still am), and we actually kept a "boob journal" in which we listed all the girls in our class who had boobs, along with illustrations. The journal was one of those little Hello Kitty diaries that came with a padlock and key. How I wish I could find it!
ALRIGHT!!!! FINE MF'N LINES!!! Sorry to be with the yelling but I has an excitement!!! YAAAAYYYYY!!!! BOOK NERDS HUZZAH IN UNISON!!!
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.
nancy was the original " mean girl". I read this book a million times. I didn't get my period until I turned 14, and almost no one I knew had it in 5th grade. Memorable moments: her mother tellig her to sit only alone or with a LADY on the bus in NYC, counting the hats in temple, having a "foyer" being a big deal, and getting her hair curled in curlers for the party - and of course the almost anthropological description of pads, belts, etc. i used to analyze the tampon box insert in the ladies' room of our club in the same way... 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...
Plotfinder #2 is definitely bringing to mind Lurlene McDaniel's stuff, and the adopted thing was a part of "Mother, Help Me Live," but that book was about leukemia (they were all about leukemia). To be honest, I found the melodrama of McDaniel's stuff hard to bear so I can't say it wasn't another of her books.
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.
@BillyPilgrimisnotmylover: I had total disdain for my sister and my friend, who were obsessed with Lurlene McDaniel. I smugly read my Christopher Pike, Lois Duncan and Sunset Island books.
@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.
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. . . .
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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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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!"
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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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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.