the thing i remember most about this book is that my dog chewed it up and i had to pay the library for it, and then i was sad because it wasn't my favorite of her books and why couldn't he have chewed up "are you there, god, it's me margaret?"
( )

A funny, touching story of a boy who has problems. A novel for young people.

understood this to be a book about puberty and it is. a good one. but it's also very much about the misery of class mobility and homogenized suburbia. Quality book, would def recommend for young boys. ( )

In 1970, Judy Blume published the young readers classic, "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret" which was about a young girl coming into adolescence, both socially and sexually.
In 1971, she published "Then Again, Maybe I Won't" which is sort of a boy's version of the same idea. Tony Miglione is 12 and 13 during the course of the book. At the same time he is coping with his family's sudden wealth and moving into a ritzy neighborhood, he's also dealing with a new friend who is a shoplifter, a sexy older girl next door who undresses with her curtains open at night (right across the yard from Tony's window), a girl at school who has a crush on him, but whom he doesn't particularly care for, his mother trying to keep up with the Jones' in their new neighborhood and social circles, getting his first erections and wet dreams, and having a stomach that causes him terrible pain anytime he is stressed out.
Though watching the girl next door undress day after day was something most 13-year-old boys would probably do in his situation, and the girl seemed to invite it, by never closing her curtains, that aspect of the story was still a little uncomfortable to me. The rest of the book I loved. ( )

What can I say? I've been in the mood for Judy Blume and revisiting my childhood.

This book is more clearly dated, especially from a class-distinction POV; nowadays even 'posh' people don't look twice at owning a truck. But I doubt very much that anything important has changed: Judy Blume nails what it means to be a confused teen with more questions than answers and no good place to ask them, and she so clearly illustrates that kids don't care about money; at least not until their parents have taught them to.

Then Again, Maybe I Won't is Blume's only YA book told from the POV of a boy and in typical Blume style she doesn't pull any punches. Tony is a boy going through puberty with all potential for embarrassment that comes with it. As a teen myself, I read it because it was scandalous, of course, but after reading it I also remember thinking "huh - girls aren't the only ones that got screwed". It was a nicely equalising thought.

I'm guessing recent editions of this book have been updated to remove most of the anachronisms. If so, I'd recommend it to anybody's teen - but only because I'd probably have no chance of getting them to read the "old fashioned" original. ( )