Reviewed by Marta Morrison for TeensReadToo.com

This was a good book. It is an actual journal of the author written in the seventies. I graduated from high school and college in the seventies so I could relate to many of the references made in the journal. I think today's girls could also relate, though, because the themes in the journals are the same struggles that today's teens go through.

It starts when Margaret is in the seventh grade and goes through her senior year. At first the entries are brief and some are quite funny. Later they get more poignant.

Margaret is boy crazy, bored, rebellious, and is trying to figure out what she believes. In the seventies, we had many issues involving desegregation, drugs, sex -- it was the era of the sexual revolution, feminism, and the big mega-churches were founded and grew in that decade. I laughed at many of the entries, especially when she would write of some profound event and not elaborate and the next entry would be something very trivial.

For example: November 8 -- Nixon was elected president. November 9 -- Everyone says me and Vernon would make a good couple. (Nixon being elected president was exciting and had worldwide ramifications but her and Vernon being a good couple didn't last more than a week.) Another example: August 8 -- President Nixon resigned; made appointment to get my hair cut.

I love that entry. It is such a teen statement. MISS AMERICAN PIE is realistic and fun to read. Plus, it makes you want to start a journal, too. ( )

Margaret Sartor grew up in Montgomery, Louisiana, coming of age during the 1970s. Through the entire journey of her adolescence, she kept a diary recounting her joys (friendships, horse rides. religious rapture) and her struggles (boyfriend angst and frizzy hair). Her entries are always frank and often funny.

I just wished for a little more reflection and substance. The author provided some context at the beginning and end of the book, but the majority consisted of just diary entries, often very short ones. Taken together, they give us a partial sense of the girl and the world she lived in, but I was left wanting a more complete picture. ( )

Sartor’s memoir is composed of actual entries from the diaries she kept between the ages of twelve and seventeen. On the surface, this glimpse into the psyche of a struggling teenager is at times funny and heartbreaking. But it is also a fabulous book for meditators. I walked away from it with a profound understanding of not only the universality of human experience (or at least, the teenage American female human experience) but also a visceral understanding of the highly transient nature of our thoughts, feelings and beliefs. ( )

Well, I haven't finished the WHOLE book yet but I like what I've read so far. I met the author this June; she is a funny, strong, and insightful person, not to mention kind. At first I pre-judged her, based on her appearance and the fact that she's a Published Author, to be vulnerable (she hates that word!) distant, humorless, and possibly arrogant. Instead she shattered my stereotypes and inspired me to start telling the stories of my life, and to use pictures in the process. Margaret is a true artist. Moral of the story here: NEVER judge a book by it's cover!

This book will take you back to your important years between 13 and 18. Sartor found her old diaries in her mom's attic and they are delighful...shags, religion, teenage angst...all set in the South. ( )