Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.

Margaret Simon is eleven when her family leaves New York City for the New Jersey suburbs. She has a private habit of talking to God, and in her new home she starts to wonder which religion, if any, belongs to her.

Her father is Jewish. Her mother was raised Christian, and neither parent practises. They tell Margaret the choice is hers, while her grandmother hopes she will pick Judaism. Margaret decides to look into it on her own.

A neighbour, Nancy Wheeler, brings her into a secret club of sixth-grade girls. The members swap opinions about boys and bras, and they wait anxiously for their first periods. Margaret watches her friends, a classmate the others gossip about, and her own changing body.

Published in 1970, this is a frank, funny coming-of-age novel for middle-grade readers. It has often been challenged over its open talk of menstruation and religion. Margaret's questions to God stay unanswered, and she keeps asking.