Eleven-year-old Margaret Simon moves from New York City to the New Jersey suburbs, where she joins a secret club with three other girls to discuss boys, bras, and the onset of puberty. The narrative tracks their specific anxieties about physical development, including measuring their busts and waiting for their first periods. Simultaneously, Margaret navigates her individual spiritual identity. Because her parents raised her without a religion, she initiates private conversations with God to seek guidance while visiting synagogues and churches to determine which faith feels right for her.
This book is for pre-teens and adolescents navigating the uncomfortable transition into physical maturity. Readers find a blunt, honest depiction of biological changes that are often treated as taboo or embarrassing in social settings. The story provides a sense of normalcy regarding growth spurts and fluctuating hormones. People read it to see their own private questions about menstruation and religious belonging reflected in a peer. The reader walks away with a practical understanding of how early adolescence functions and the realization that their physical and internal changes are common experiences.
Inward-looking and thought-provoking; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Empathetic Explorer. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1970
- Language
- EN
