Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret is an outstanding book about a girl with a very hard life. To start off, she just moved to a new town. Moving is challenging enough, but, in addition, her body is changing, and she has to choose a religion for herself.

It definitely is not easy to move. I know much about this because I, being a member of a military family, have moved several times to new duty stations across the United States. When Margaret moves, she feels very alone until she bonds with a group of friends. I, too, have made some amazing new friends without forgetting my old ones.

This book made me think about what it would be like if I had no religion and had to choose one. How do you choose a religion? Though Margaret says she has no religion, I think that she has a Jewish perspective on life. I see this because Margaret always seems to have a personal relationship with G-d. Whenever she needs help dealing with the everyday problems of a tween, she always turns to G-d. For example, when Margaret needs confidence about her body changing, she asks G-d for advice.

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret is a timeless classic. The questions about tween life are still the same. I know this is true because even my mother, who read this book about 40 years ago, still remembers turning to the book for questions about her body changing. I have her original copy of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, which I hope to pass down to my children when they are ready.

This book has made me think about friendship, religion and how tweens live. Everybody should read this book because it is amazingly great.

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Abigail Elson

Age: 11, 5th grade

San Diego Jewish Academy, San Diego, CA