Are American children exceptionally articulate about their problems, I wonder? I find it hard to imagine a group of small girls here anxiously discussing a longed-for puberty in the way the heroine of Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret does, though the author assures us that she is recalling her own pre-'teen emotions. At all events, this comedy depends on the discussion which Margaret, who is rising twelve, holds with the rest of her gang about menstruation and chest measurement and (in the same breath) about religious faith…. One or two scenes provoke at least a smile—notably, the scene at Norman Fishbein's party where a handsome schoolmate, idol of the little girls, forgets his manners; but for many tastes the book may seem cute and sentimental. (p. 3325)