What My Mother Doesn't Know

"What My Mother Doesn't Know" is about Sophie, a young woman who details her first few "loves." First there is Lou, her first boyfriend, whom she doesn't talk about much (only mentioning him when he broke up with her in the prior year). Then there is Dylan, who is probably her first "real love," but things go downhill with him. Then there is Chaz, an online creep whom Sophie (thankfully) never meets in person. Finally, there's the "masked man" at the Halloween dance. Written in free verse, the book is a very quick read (I was done with it in less than an hour) and engaging, although easy to just skim through instead of appreciating each separate poem. ( )

Sophie is suffering from a freshman-year boy crisis--falling out of love with one boy and in love with another, a masked boy at the Halloween dance who's probably handsome and mysterious and dashing, and almost certainly not the awkward boy who's become the butt of most of the class jokes...right?

There's a very brief "fling" with an online boy who (predictably) turns out to be a creeper, but there was never any actual danger for Sophie. I did appreciate the way that she falls for Murphy--she gets to know him and THEN falls for him, rather than her previous boyfriend, with whom things happened in the opposite order and didn't work out so well.

The verse novel moves quickly and is an engaging light read, but it isn't as memorable as some of Sones' other books, especially "Stop Pretending." ( )

August 22, 2012

This book is SO GREAT! I will NEVER understand why it's on banned lists. I have a feeling some mothers are offended by the title. It's SO INCREDIBLY TAME, especially compared to scads of other YA novels these days! There's kissing... and some references to nudity, but geesh! They wanted to ban it? Ridiculous!

Anyway, my favorite poem in the entire book is as follows:
HAIR PRAYER

His hand's
in my hair.
May he leave it
right there
until April
or May,
near the nape
of my neck
just below
my left ear.
Let it stay
where it is,
right here
in my hair
and not go
anywhere
for a year
and a day.
Better yet,
let it stay
till I'm gray.Love it!! (The font in the book is so much prettier than this one though... ;)

Anyway, I highly recommend this book! Plus, it's all written in verse, so it's a VERY quick read!

November 23-24, 2010

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this book before! Shocking!

I love this book about a young girl and her forays into love... and what she does when she falls in love with an unpopular boy... :) ( )

Characters: Sophie, Rachel, Grace, Robin (Murphy)

Setting: High school in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Theme: Friendship, love (at first dance), don't judge a book by its cover, internet safety, controlling private information, family (mother daughter relationship)

Summary: Sophie and her best friends, Rachel and Grace, are high school freshmen who share common ground: love for boys. Sophie dates Dylan, but things do not work out like in a Hollywood movie. She is first distanced from him when she becomes attracted to the boy she met online who turns out to have an unacceptably perverted mind. When she notices that she has physically outgrown Dylan, she knows it is over with him. But her Hollywood movie style romance has rekindled when she dances with a mysterious masked man at a dance night. She later finds out that he is Robin called by Murphy by everyone at school, the word used as a substitute for jerk. But it does not stop her from helplessly falling in love with who he really is: A guy with a beautiful smile, a mesmerizing gleam in the eyes, and a big fat warm heart. The book ends with Sophie making a decision of dating him in public despite the fear that she will be just as much as a laughingstock and a loner as he is.

Review: I will definitely have a hard time searching for a cuter high school romance novel than "What My Mother Doesn't know." I read the part about Sophie stating that she hates her mom, but she hates herself even more for hating her mom, multiple times; she spoke for all the daughters in the world. I loved how Sophie was not swayed by others' thoughts and always had a place in her heart for Robin. I hope that as teenagers read this novel, they take a second look at Robins at their school and really "see" them, not just look at them. Another thing I loved was the friendship the girls had. Often, girls are notorious for abandoning their friendship for love and crawling back to their friends once the love life is over. The friendship the girls had was enviable and truthful. Also, the book teaches them about the dangers and pitfalls of dating guys online.

Curriculum ties: Technology (internet safety, digital citizenship), Health (decision making, passing judgments, school bullying), art (flip drawing, art titles introduced in the book) ( )

This is a quick, beautifully written story about a fourteen-year-old girl who experiences life, love, and heartbreak in the midst of growing up. This coming of age story very much gets at the heart of many issues that adolescent girls face, and deals with them in a frank, but poetic manner. As the main character, Sohpie, grapples with becoming an adult and making mature decisions, she makes a few mistakes along the way, which are dealt with through honest reflection. This book would be great for reluctant readers in a middle school classroom, or for those who want an "easy" read. ( )