Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

As soon as Margaret and her parents move into their new house in Farbrook, Margaret meets Nancy Wheeler, another soon-to-be sixth grader on her street. Nancy invites Margaret to come to her house and play in the sprinklers, and Margaret learns that she and Nancy will be in the same class together. Nancy brags that she’s “growing already” and thinks that she’ll “look like one of those girls in Playboy” (7) before long. Nancy adds that she’s been practicing kissing with her pillow and has lipstick, although she’s not allowed to wear it until she’s in eighth grade. Margaret starts to feel like a little kid compared to Nancy, and when they meet Nancy’s mother, Mrs. Wheeler is surprised to learn that Margaret doesn’t go to Sunday school. As Nancy and Margaret jump through the sprinklers, Nancy’s 14-year-old brother Evan plays a prank on them and turns the water up, drenching the girls. Nancy goes inside to tell her mother, and Margaret meets Evan’s friend Moose. Nancy walks Margaret home, and as the girls part ways, Nancy instructs Margaret to wear “loafers, but no socks” (14) on the first day of school because “otherwise [Margaret will] look like a baby” (14). Nancy claims to have a “secret club” that she wants Margaret to join, but Margaret will have to impress the other club members first. That night, Margaret prays to God and asks him to please help her “grow” so she can look like Nancy expected her to look.

Margaret’s father purchases a lawnmower because he is determined to take care of his new lawn himself as a homeowner, but after he has an accident and cuts his finger, Mr. Simon decides to let Moose do the mowing in the future. One morning, Margaret hears someone knocking on the front door. To her surprise, Grandma has unexpectedly come to visit from Manhattan and brought clothes and food for Margaret and her parents. Margaret is stunned to learn that her grandmother took a train to get to Farbrook because she always says that “trains are so dirty” (22), but Grandma is happy to make the journey to see Margaret.

Margaret’s parents are shocked because they never thought Grandma would make the journey to New Jersey, but they try to welcome her with open arms. Grandma tells Margaret that even though they don’t live close to one another anymore, she will “think of [Margaret] every day” and will even “call [her] every night at seven-thirty” so she can “keep [her] posted about New York” (26) and hear about Margaret’s life in Farbrook. Grandma warns that Margaret’s parents might not like it, but Grandma is determined to stay involved in Margaret’s life. Grandma spends Labor Day with Margaret and her parents, and as she leaves to return to New York, she tells Margaret’s parents that she will come to visit often because she’s “got to keep an eye on [her] Margaret” (26).

Margaret is nervous about her first day of public school. When her mother sees that Margaret is wearing her loafers without socks, she warns her that she will get blisters, but Margaret says that she will “just have to suffer” because “nobody in the sixth-grade wears socks on the first day of school” (28). However, early in the day, Margaret’s feet are rubbed raw, and half of the sixth-grade girls are wearing socks. At first, Margaret mistakes another student for the teacher, and she is shocked at how tall the girl is, how she is very obviously wearing a bra, and how “it [isn’t] the smallest size” (30).

Margaret’s teacher is a nervous young man named Mr. Benedict, who has just graduated from his teaching college. He asks the students to tell him a little about themselves and answer a few questions on a piece of paper. One of the questions asks the students to name something they hate, and among other things, Margaret writes that she hates religious holidays. At the end of class, Nancy invites Margaret to a secret club meeting at her house, and she reminds her once again about the “no socks” rule. When Margaret returns home, she tells her mother about the secret club meeting and Mr. Benedict. Margaret’s mother is skeptical about Mr. Benedict being a first-year teacher, but Margaret assures her that Mr. Benedict seems nice. She then changes her clothes and leaves for Nancy’s house.

At Nancy’s house, Margaret meets Janie and Gretchen: the other members of Nancy’s “secret club.” The girls waste no time gossiping about their classmate Laura Danker, the more “developed” girl in their class, and Nancy states that Laura has a “bad reputation” and that she “goes behind the A&P with [Evan] and Moose” (34). Nancy reveals that no one in their group has gotten their period yet, which fills Margaret with relief because she hasn’t gotten hers either. The girls then start talking about Mr. Benedict, and Nancy claims that she saw Mr. Benedict staring at Laura Danker. Nancy says that the girls have to come up with a name and rules for their club. They decide to call themselves the Four PTS, or “Pre-Teen Sensations.” Nancy decides that they all need to have secret club names, and they all have to wear bras. They also agree that the first girl to get her period has to tell the others all about it, and they each have to keep a list of boys they like and share it with the other club members.

The girls start talking about religion, and when they learn that Margaret doesn’t go to Hebrew school or Sunday school, she explains that her mother is Christian and her father is Jewish. Her mother’s parents “didn’t want a Jewish son-in-law” and cut her mother off, and even Grandma “wasn’t happy about getting a Christian daughter-in-law” (39), so Margaret was raised with no religion. Janie and Nancy point out that everyone in Farbrook goes to the YMCA or the Jewish Community Center, and if Margaret doesn’t belong to any religion, she won’t know which one to join. The meeting ends, and that night Margaret tells her mother that she wants a bra. Her mother is surprised but promises to take Margaret shopping on Saturday. Margaret prays to God to help her grow and to guide her on which religion she should choose.