Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

Mar 27

First published in 1970, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume quickly became a bestselling novel, was named an outstanding book of the year by the New York Times in the category of fiction for ages 9–12, and forty years after it was published was included in Time magazine's list of the 100 best novels published since 1923.

And because of its honest depiction of the title character Margaret’s coming of age, it also helped earn Blume a spot on the American Library Association’s list of most frequently challenged authors of the 21st century.

To learn more about the book, CBC Radio’s Q interviewed Blume for the book’s 50th anniversary, producing both an excellent article and audio interview.

But I focus on this book today not because of its content but because, 44 years after its first publication, Atheneum Books released a new edition of the book with a truly brilliant jacket design by Lauren Rille and illustrations by Debbie Ridpath Ohi.

The remarkably simple design features only the book’s author and title, and an icon that would have been utterly unknown when the book was published back in 1970, but instantly recognizable to potential readers when this new edition was published in 2014.

And it captures the spirit of the title and the central theme of the book with just a bubble and three dots...

In reply to the title framed as a text message, what we get is an indication of God’s presence and yet also their silence. But in the digital age of 2014, there is such symbolic weight and meaning to that symbol… the waiting on a response, one that possibly never comes.

Contrast this to the book’s original cover design in 1970…