Book Summary:
LaVaughn
may be young, but she knows she is going to college. And if she’s going to make it into college, she needs
money.
Jolly
is a seventeen-year-old mother of two who only knows she can’t make it without
help, so she posts a sign “BABYSITTER NEEDED BAD.”
For
a while LaVaughn and Jolly help each other, but when Jolly is fired and
LaVaughn knows she should quit taking care of Jeremy and Jilly because she
isn’t getting paid, a different type of friendship emerges that impacts them
all.
APA Reference:
Wolff, V. E. (1993). Make
lemonade. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.
My Impressions:
This
is the story of a 14-year-old girl trying to find a way to get out, a
17-year-old girl, and mother, trying to raise two young children alone, and the
adults in their lives who try to keep them from sinking. This book looked just okay from the blurb
on the back, but once I started reading, I was totally invested in every
character from LaVaughn (14) to Jolly’s (17) little baby Jilly. The setting is in generic poverty,
which unfortunately, makes it realistic and accessible to a lot of teenagers
today. This is the one book I have
read this summer I feel my students could relate to well. Make
Lemonade is written in free verse making it a quick read and perfect to
recommend to reluctant readers. It
also takes the spoken language of Jolly, which is not so great, and juxtaposes
it against LaVaughn and her mother’s more proper speech (although LaVaughn
still slips up some as well). Make Lemonade is a wonderfully written
story. It shows how determination
and hope can change even the youngest life, and it does so without being
preachy like some books tend to get.
Professional Review:
Wolff's third novel for young adults tackles the theme of
poverty, not only that of LaVaughn, a fourteen-year-old determined to earn
enough money to go to college, but also that of a seventeen-year-old single
mother ironically named Jolly. LaVaughn accepts the job of baby-sitting Jolly's
two small children but quickly realizes that the young woman needs as much help
and nurturing as her two neglected children. Jolly's problems — she is nearly
illiterate; neither of the fathers of her two children provides any assistance;
her apartment is unbelievably filthy; and she loses her job because of sexual
harassment — threaten to take over LaVaughn's life. But the four become
something akin to a temporary family, and through their relationship, each makes
progress toward a better life. Notably, Jolly enrolls in a program for young
mothers at the high school and begins to develop the skills she needs to move
her life forward, to "make lemonade" from lemons. Wolff's
stylistic experiment will intrigue young readers; sixty-six brief chapters,
with words arranged on the page like poetry and sometimes composed of
ungrammatical sentences, perfectly echo the patterns of teenage speech. With a
plot that develops incredible dramatic momentum, this fastreading book may
appeal to readers just like Jolly. Vague in setting — the story could take
place in any inner city — as well as ethnicity, Wolff's characters grab hold
and don't let go. The author's fans will celebrate this new book that provides
the same emotional reading experience as her earlier novels, Probably Still
Nick Swansen and The Mozart Season (both Holt).
Fader,
E. (1993, September/October). Make Lemonade [Review of the book Make Lemonade by V. E. Wolff]. Horn Book
Magazine, 69(5), 606-607. Retrieved from http://www.hbook.com
Magazine, 69(5), 606-607. Retrieved from http://www.hbook.com
Library Uses:
Make Lemonade is the perfect story to
recommend to low income kids, some who are young mothers or know someone who
is, who feel like nothing is written about them. I would love to find more stories that have a setting like
this, don’t talk down about the poverty, just about it, and are realistic and
uplifting. This would be a great
book to recommend on the fly, but would also be a wonderful addition to a book
talk for junior high or high school kids.
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