A Life in Books: Alyson Noël

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. I read it back in sixth grade when a bunch of us shared a battered copy, then had earnest discussions about it during recess and lunch. I was completely captivated by Margaret's story. It was so relatable and personal—it felt like it was written for me and my friends and all the changes we were going through. When it came time for me to pass it on, my math teacher caught me in the act, snatched the book right out of my hands, and locked it away in her desk drawer. The next day she stood before us to announce that she'd read the book during her lunch break and had decided it was pure trash, that we shouldn't be reading it, and that she would not return it. That's when I realized just how potent a book could be. The words in those pages had managed to simultaneously enthrall a group of 12-year-old girls and outrage a math teacher. That is powerful stuff. At that moment I decided that someday I wanted in on that, too.