Are you there God? It's me, Margaret

[Lanolin]

Has anyone seen this movie and like to discuss?
It's based on the Judy Blume book, and Rachel MacAdams is one of the stars, she plays Margaret's mother.
Short sypnosis - Margaret is 12 years old and she's had to move schools from New York city to the suburbs of New Jersey. She's an only child. Her mum is Christian and her Dad is Jewish. She wants to find out what religion she fits into and whether is a God.

The answer isn't quite what she is hoping, but it may be that she finds Him when she is older. She tries out different religions eg goes to a church, a synagogue, and finds out why her mum's parents disowned her for marrying her dad.

I don't know if this is realistic or not, because I don't know of any people like that..most Christians I know are fine with marrying into Jewish family, it would seem the other way round that Jewish families don't always accept Christians?

 

[tourist]

I haven't seen the movie or read the book, but it seems like and interesting premise.

 

[Lanolin]

I haven't seen the movie or read the book, but it seems like and interesting premise.

Put it on your list, along with Clueless and Crocodile Dundee, and Crocodile Dundee 2.

 

[tourist]

Put it on your list, along with Clueless and Crocodile Dundee, and Crocodile Dundee 2.

Absolutely, my friend.

 

[2ndTimeIsTheCharm]

I remember reading the book when I was 11. Back when public schools didn't hate religion so much. It was trending among my friends, so I read it too. I'm protestant but I had friends of other religions. And we ALL got along so well, before the globalists started inciting hate among us all.

I can't wait for Jesus to come back and make everything right...


🕊

 

[Lanolin]

Yea the Protestant/Catholic divide and the Jewish/Christian divide seems all petty politics for something that happened years ago and people have inherited those prejudices.

Protestant vs Catholic is generally about culture clash, eg in Ireland, Protestants tend to be the English, and the Catholic majority are Irish. It was more to do with the land, and being colonised than the differences in theology.

Likewise Jewish/Christian divide was mostly about geopolitics, it was more Gentiles (non Jews) having more land, and Jews only having the Promised Land. Or the Holy Land.

Even today...like the Muslims have Mecca, but they claim Jerusalem as well, just like the Christians and Jews do, because all the God stuff happened there.

 

[Lanolin]

 

[Lanolin]

Have got book/bio of Judy Blume to read, should be interesting.

I remember reading Superfudge, Deenie, and Blubber. Also Tales of Fourth Grade Nothing. I found the books realistic to what tweens were going through, experiencing puberty and really not knowing how to deal with growing pains, also dealing with your peer group at different stages of development.

We def had questions about religion growing up, and wondering if faith just came from our parents, and those of us that didn't have religious parents wondering which religion to choose, if any.

 

[Lanolin]

Has anyone here been to a synagogue? I once tried to go with a friend to one in town just as a casual visitor, but for some reason it was closed. Maybe it's exclusive to Jews and they don't like Christians being nosy? I dunno. Or turning up uninvited.

I wanted to see the Torah, because it would be on a special scroll, and they need to use a yad (pointing stick) to read the Hebrew..like they are not allowed to touch it with their bare hands, it's that precious.

 

[Lanolin]

Ok finished the book about Judy Blume, it was called the Genius of Judy. Children/teens would write her letters asking for advice or how to deal with things as they were growing up, her books really touched young people's lives.

I did not know that her books were controversial and banned from school libraries in a lot of states in the US! I don't know if they were banned from sale, but they were 'challenged' by concerned parents...never children. They loved them. Also if you ban a book, that makes people want to read it even more lol.

To me they just seemed to be books that were realistic, and they weren't preachy.

 

[Lanolin]

Deenie I remember well, and Blubber- that dealt with bullying.
Deenie was a little controversial because it had passages about her touching herself, but that's just normal for teens to do that, they are growing and exploring their own bodies, what do people expect? If we can't or not allowed to touch our own bodies, or private parts, how are we supposed to know how they work?? meh

 

[Lanolin]

Are you there God, it's Me, Margaret wasn't just about finding ones faith or exploring religion, young Margaret was going through puberty, so there was a bit about menstruation. I thought it was realistic for that. Even though it's now been decades since those books were published, girls still menstruate!! And they need to know why!

Otherwise, if you didn't know what to expect you'd be traumatised that you were bleeding down there and panic.

 

[Lanolin]

Ok so nobody's read this book or even heard of it here. Was it really banned in your country??? Was it taboo for Christians to read? IDK

 

[Lanolin]

Judy Blume mostly focussed on the tween girl experience especially in this novel, but I wonder if the corresponding tween boy would have been the same.

Jewish 13 year old boys already have a rite of passage - the Bar Mitzvah.
Nowadays girls have one, called the Bat Mitzvah. It's a big deal, and the main part, aside from the party, is reading scripture/Torah out loud in front of everyone in the Synagogue.

I was thinking do Christians have an equivalent? Was first communion a big deal for you? I've heard of girls all dressed in white, like they are going to get married, study for their first communion, i,e when they can go up and partake in the Lords supper for the first time. This is in Catholic churches.

In other churches they don't do this. Everyone gets to partake if they want to. It either gets passed around in the pews or you go up to the altar to get your portion. Scripture readings are chosen by the pastor and as long as you can read out loud, it doesn't matter at what age you do it.

Baptism, is often done once a year at Easter, or when a child is born by their parents in the first few months.
So...was there any ritual or ceremony for young Christians apart from Easter camp and maybe a role in the nativity at Christmas? Like a bar mitzvah when someone turns 13 and comes of age? Cos I wasn't a christian till age 32 and never went to church as a child apart from weddings.

 

[Lanolin]

God's not dead He's truly alive.

Maybe should discuss that movie, more people might have seen it even though it's quite some time ago now.

 

[Sculpt]

Have got book/bio of Judy Blume to read, should be interesting.

I remember reading Superfudge, Deenie, and Blubber. Also Tales of Fourth Grade Nothing. I found the books realistic to what tweens were going through, experiencing puberty and really not knowing how to deal with growing pains, also dealing with your peer group at different stages of development.

We def had questions about religion growing up, and wondering if faith just came from our parents, and those of us that didn't have religious parents wondering which religion to choose, if any.

My Forth Grade teacher read us Tales of Fourth Grade Nothing and Blubber. Don't know why, but they were certainly fine literature.

I was aware of Are you there God? It's me, Margaret, but never read it. I might have to see the movie. It has 99% at RT.

 

[Lanolin]

My Forth Grade teacher read us Tales of Fourth Grade Nothing and Blubber. Don't know why, but they were certainly fine literature.

I was aware of Are you there God? It's me, Margaret, but never read it. I might have to see the movie. It has 99% at RT.

It's pretty good.
I can see why it was popular with tweens when it was published. There was not really anything like that at the time, that were concerned with growing up and puberty and things all girls REALLY wanted to know but couldn't just ask their mum about.

I don't know about your mum but my mum never told me anything lol. One day I was a girl, next day I was a woman! Hurrah.

Nope nothing like that. I never even got the bra shop.

 

[Sculpt]

Ok so nobody's read this book or even heard of it here. Was it really banned in your country??? Was it taboo for Christians to read? IDK

I've been moderately up on the subject of books being challenged, restricted or banned from US public school libraries. I hadn't heard of Blume's book being outright banned in any public school, so I looked it up.

Generally speaking sexual content, especially sexual relations or maturation may get a book banned or restricted (need to be certain age or parental approval) in public school Grammar, Jr High libraries.

Generally speaking many parents don't want sexual material in grammar school children's libraries with the thought it's simply not appropriate for children that have not reached puberty. And when they do, schools have sex ed, so public school libraries don't need to have that kind of content.

Context and extremes matter in books that get removed or restricted. There have been examples of books in public grammar school libraries that either had to be a horrible mistake or someone needed to be fired as they were literally against the law to be exposed to children/minors.

According to this list any Blume books currently banned from US public school is extremely rare.

• Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret — Gilbert (elementary/junior high), Arizona (removed/restricted, 1980s); Xenia, Ohio (challenged/removed); Zimmerman/Elk River area, Minnesota (restricted to parental permission, later reversed). Reasons: discussion of menstruation/puberty and perceived religious objections.
• Blubber — Montgomery County, Maryland (removed from elementary schools, 1980); Peoria, Illinois (banned then restricted); Hanover, Pennsylvania (removed then placed on restricted shelf); Arlington, Texas (removed from an elementary school, 1999). Reasons: offensive language, bullying content, and “indecent/inappropriate” material.
• Deenie — Appears on ALA’s lists of frequently challenged titles and has documented school‑level removals/restrictions for references to masturbation/sexuality (1970s–1990s). Reason: sexual content/masturbation references.
• Forever… — Documented as removed or restricted in multiple districts and explicitly cited in recent state/district ban reporting (for example, cited as banned across Utah public schools in PEN America reporting on legislative‑driven bans). Reason: explicit teen sexual content.
• Tiger Eyes — Reported removals/restrictions in districts including Hanover, Pennsylvania and Many Junior High, Louisiana (1999). Reasons: sexual content, drinking, language, and emotional/mental‑health themes.

 

[Lanolin]

It may be rare but it happens. I mean out of the huge numbers of schools in the US maybe only a handful but thats enough to give it notoriety.

Actually reading it the list Blume books have been banned from entire school districts so actually it would cover a lot of schools.

By the time I was working in school libraries in NZ the Blume books were not popular/out of date so there wasn't any furor about them.
The only controversy with religious (ie Christian) objections was with Harry Potter, until many realised well, they just fiction/fantasy and nobody actually really believes in them. Otherwise they'd need to ban all books about witches like Roald Dahl, Meg and Mog and fairy tales oh and Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

 

[Lanolin]

Of all the books on the list Forever is probably the most explicit. Blume's daughter asked her to write a book about a relationship that had pre-marital sex where the girl didn't get pregnant or punished.

I don't remember ever reading it, nor Tiger Eyes, but those details were mentioned in Blume's biography.

Deenie was more about scoliosis and the challenges Deenie had with that. The masturbation references were only a small part of the entire book, like literally a couple of sentences.