In Episode 2 of First Edition, Book Riot editors Kelly Jensen and Vanessa Diaz joined me to talk about Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret ahead of the new movie adaptation coming out April 28th.
There’s much to say about this book, and we said much of it. It is deeply complex, honest, accessible, and even today strikingly relevant.
It is harder to say that for the cover. Or I should say covers. Because in the 53 year publication history of AYTGIMM, book designers have tried, with varying levels of success, to capture the spirit of the book. And it must be said: this is hard! It is a book about getting your period and romantic attraction and jealousy and religious faith/doubt and navigating friendships, and relating to your family even as they try to relate to each other. And all of this in a book for 8-? year-olds. It is an extremely difficult task. Which makes it fun to….consider. So what follows is a somewhat random selection of previous covers, along with a note about how related to anything in the book the cover is.
The 1970 First Edition
The first edition leans into “it is such a drag being a tween.” Margaret looks age-appropriate, but it’s a little more “The Yellow Wallpaper” than middle-grade. At least you get that it is going to be pretty serious, just maybe not that serious.
1977 Vintage Edition
Ok so we’ve livened things up a bit. We are outside and there are flowers and a suburban house. The winds of the pink sky are blowing as Margaret turns her flowing blonde hair toward us. Still seems serious but flowers mean it isn’t ALL bad. Points for that. Minus points for getting Margaret’s hair color wrong (it’s brown). I guess it is possible that this is supposed to be Margaret’s friend, Nancy, who has blonde hair. Though that’s worse than getting Margaret’s hair color wrong. Either way, come on.
1980 Edition
I don’t think there is a scene of Margaret and three other girls huddled and talking like this, but I will give it a pass because some of Blume’s strongest scenes are of girls talking, squabbling, laughing, and just in general figuring out how to be (and not be) friends. Realistic portrayals of people on book covers is a dicey proposition, though you do see it more often on kids books than on adult books. To really capture the book though, you would need to somehow indicate that they are talking about periods. I admit this is a lot to expect. Speech bubbles? No. Holding a box of Teenage Softies? No for a couple of reasons, not the least because it wasn’t until later that the period products changed from the belt contraptions of the original text. So this is indeed a little too Babysitter’s Club for this book, still one of the better efforts.
“Screw it, let’s just pick a random thing and see what happens.”
It is totally fair to have a tween girl doing regular things on the cover. Part of the appeal of AYTGIMM is that it is normalizing things being—and feeling—weird. Margaret is not special and stuff happens and it just a lot, but it’s OK that it feels like a lot.
Hearts appear on many editions, these are just a few of them. I don’t think anyone holds, mails, levitates, or in any other way manipulates paper hearts at any point. I find myself wanting to read it as a symbol for menstruation, but in all likelihood is just a generic representation of middle school feelings. And that stinks because if there is one single idea to rule them all in this book is that the feelings of sixth grade girls are not reducible to a crude heart shape.1981-2008(!) Edition
As far as I can tell, this edition was in print for over 25 years, which is as long of a run for an edition as I found. And while it reads as more “Are You There God? It’s Me, Sylvia Plath,” I can get behind this one. She is sitting in her room thinking and sort of pointing herself up and out. Double-decker interior shutters are strange, and I don’t think I’ve met a kid who would actually do this, but it feels a little grown up and lived-in.
You Can Probably FEEL What Era This One is From
If you felt radiating waves of late 1990s/Early 2000s flying at you, the congratulations. I am not sure when looking up and smirking came into our lives, but it was fully her by the time this edition came out in 2001. Part Hannah Montana, part Gilmore Girls, this cover is selling…spunky? Plucky. Maybe quirky. Not quite. You know what the word is (and I have used it already). TWEEN. The late 1990s saw the popularization of the word tween for this time of life and we all know precisely what that means. And here it is in glorious Adobe Illustrator form.
Hello Fellow Kids
This 2014 version was the only one to lean into the “writing to God” bit. And although of course Margaret is not texting God in 1970, it is a clever solution to a hard problem. It’s weird that God is typing and the tension of thinking about that threatens to overwhelm the book. Though even that makes sense: these days the bit about Margaret’s religious doubts is less compelling than the other parts of her life. And many people are dissuaded from checking the book out because they thought it was a book about religion. So by emphasizing the confusing nature of the title, this design does capture an element of how people encounter it. I don’t think you get points for doubling down on a misunderstanding, but at least there are no paper hearts.
Now a Major Motion Picture
Hey guys, did you know this book/movie is set in the 1970s? No, well how about some swoopy letters of random sizes?
Aside from the title, it’s Fortson’s expression here that works. We are still looking up, because that’s what you do on covers and posters when you are thinking or worried or generally having a feeling that can’t be rendered with a full on smile or scowl. I would assume that there are new editions coming using the movie style and actors, and I would welcome it. Would I mind Kathy Bates making some sort of Tawanda expression and Rachel McAdams looking fetchingly concerned? Of course not. But this is Margaret’s story and it is a story of how she feels and while covers are bad at representing it turns out that books are good at it. Am guessing the movie will be too.
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