Virginia Euwer Wolff
Author of Make Lemonade
About the Author
Disambiguation Notice:
Virginia Euwer Wolff, the contemporary young adult and children's author, should not be confused with Virginia Woolf, the famous 20th-century author. Note the difference in spelling of their last names.
Series
Works by Virginia Euwer Wolff
Make Lemonade 1 copy
Associated Works
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?: Poems of Emily Dickinson for Children (1978) — Introduction, some editions — 918 copies, 13 reviews
No Easy Answers: Short Stories About Teenagers Making Tough Choices (1997) — Contributor — 152 copies, 1 review
Friends: Stories About New Friends, Old Friends, and Unexpectedly True Friends (2005) — Contributor — 91 copies
Ultimate Sports: Short Stories by Outstanding Writers for Young Adults (1995) — Contributor — 76 copies
From One Experience to Another: Award-Winning Authors Sharing Real-Life Experiences Through Fiction (1997) — Contributor — 47 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Wolff, Virginia Euwer
- Legal name
- Wolff, Virginia Euwer
- Other names
- Wolff, Virginia
- Birthdate
- 1937-08-25
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Smith College
- Occupations
- high school English teacher
elementary school teacher - Short biography
- Award-winning author Virginia Euwer Wolff was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1937. “I grew up in rural Oregon in a log house — with bark left on inside and out. We had no electricity, a massive stone fireplace, a grand piano, and tons of books.” Books have remained Wolff's treasures throughout her life, though she didn't become a published author until relatively late in her life. After receiving her Bachelor's degree from Smith College in 1959, she taught elementary school and later high school English.
Wolff's first book for young readers, "Probably Still Nick Swansen", was published in 1988 and won both the International Reading Association Award and the PEN-West Book Award. Since then she has written several more critically acclaimed young adult novels, earning more honors, including the Golden Kite Award for Fiction and the Jane Addams Book Award for Children's Books that Build Peace.
The mother of a grown son and daughter, Wolff is also now grandmother of two. She lives in a cottage in Oregon, where she has a studio in the middle of the woods, “with lots of skylights and room to spread out, surrounded by my books.” An accomplished violinist, she is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Oregon. She also enjoys hiking, swimming, and gardening. - Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Oregon City, Oregon, USA
- Disambiguation notice
- Virginia Euwer Wolff, the contemporary young adult and children's author, should not be confused with Virginia Woolf, the famous 20th-century author. Note the difference in spelling of their last names.
- Associated Place (for map)
- Oregon, USA
Members
Reviews
12-year-old Allegra’s summer starts off normally – finishing school, spending time with friends, practicing her violin – then it’s turned upside down when she finds out that she will be competing in a music competition - The Ernest Bloch Competition for Young Musicians - and decides to devote her summer focused solely on learning – really learning - Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 4. She practices several hours a day, with dedication, vigor and utter concentration, but she also show more makes time to enjoy the summer. After turning pages for her father at a quartet concert, people notice and she ends up turning pages for all kinds of musicians – quartets, solo pianists, chamber music. She spends time with her two best friends Sarah and Jessica, she starts riding her bike late at night, she compiles a list of vocabulary words to master over the summer, she befriends a troubled professional singer, she meets a homeless man who shows up at concerts and dances – he has a lost song that Allegra is determined to find, and she also has to reconcile a tragedy from her family’s history. Then she receives a package from her Grandmother Raisa, which quietly changes everything.
Not only is Allegra a gifted violinist, she is also exceptionally intelligent, sensitive and courageous. She is a luminously realized character, highly mature for her age, humble, but also very relatable. She grapples with issues that are relevant to 12-year-olds everywhere – the search for identity, dealing with family issues, figuring out what she wants and needs from herself and others. This book is richly textured with several very real characters, plot, humor, pathos, and dialogue. It’s a wonderful blend of drama and contemplation, and has a satisfying ending that almost always causes my heart to hurt (in a good way) every time I read it.
I first read this book when I was twelve – Allegra’s age. It was around the time I started getting serious about music, and I instantly fell in love with it. I am now 45, and it still remains one of my favorite books of all time. So many great characters: Mr. Kaplan, Allegra’s supportive musician parents, her brother David, Sarah, Jessica, Karen Karen, Christine, Mr. Trouble, Deirdre, Ezra, her beloved Grandmother Raisa, even Steve Landauer. I love this book, can’t you tell? show less
Not only is Allegra a gifted violinist, she is also exceptionally intelligent, sensitive and courageous. She is a luminously realized character, highly mature for her age, humble, but also very relatable. She grapples with issues that are relevant to 12-year-olds everywhere – the search for identity, dealing with family issues, figuring out what she wants and needs from herself and others. This book is richly textured with several very real characters, plot, humor, pathos, and dialogue. It’s a wonderful blend of drama and contemplation, and has a satisfying ending that almost always causes my heart to hurt (in a good way) every time I read it.
I first read this book when I was twelve – Allegra’s age. It was around the time I started getting serious about music, and I instantly fell in love with it. I am now 45, and it still remains one of my favorite books of all time. So many great characters: Mr. Kaplan, Allegra’s supportive musician parents, her brother David, Sarah, Jessica, Karen Karen, Christine, Mr. Trouble, Deirdre, Ezra, her beloved Grandmother Raisa, even Steve Landauer. I love this book, can’t you tell? show less
Rating: 4* of five
The Book Description: Virginia Euwer Wolff's groundbreaking novel, written in free verse, tells the story of fourteen-year-old LaVaughn, who is determined to go to college--she just needs the money to get there. When she answers a babysitting ad, LaVaughn meets Jolly, a seventeen-year-old single mother with two kids by different fathers. As she helps Jolly make lemonade out of the lemons her life has given her, LaVaughn learns some lessons outside the classroom. With two show more kids hanging in the balance, they need to make the best out of life -- and they can only do it for themselves and each other.
My Review: Okay. Brace yourselves. This is a YA novel written in a teenaged girl's voice in free verse. What does this strongly imply I am about to do? Rant and invectivize and holler, right? As a rule, a safe bet.
Rule, meet exception.
I love LaVaughn and Jolly and their weird, codependent growing up. I am impressed by the genuineness of all the various lovings going on through the book. I am even overlooking the free-verse affectation. It's totally unnecessary to tell this story in any kind of verse, but whatever. LaVaughn's first person voice is poignantly like that of other young women I've known as they grew up, and makes me mist over a little bit.
Quote me on that and I will swear an oath on a stack of Bibles that you're lying.
The events that LaVaughn narrates remind me of my many attempts to save others. White knight, in more ways than one, rides in and saves the day...then poof you're invisible when things go right. It's like being a parent!
It IS being a parent. And that both sucks and blows. But it's also, in a weird masochistic way, the best feeling of all, because there is one fewer roadblock in someone else's path through life because you, O Savior Complex Haver, gave in and did what your warped sense of self insists is right.
Problem is...that warp is there because, more often than not, you ARE right.
La Vaughn's in for a long long haul. But she also gets something big in return, something not always obvious at the moment, and often not until a lot of life has passed beneath one's eyes. She gets to know in her heart that at least a few people had one less rock to carry, one more reason to smile, one small moment of being, if not feeling, cared about and for, because she lifted, carried, cared, smiled.
Most days that's enough. Come hear her tell about it. It's a good story. show less
The Book Description: Virginia Euwer Wolff's groundbreaking novel, written in free verse, tells the story of fourteen-year-old LaVaughn, who is determined to go to college--she just needs the money to get there. When she answers a babysitting ad, LaVaughn meets Jolly, a seventeen-year-old single mother with two kids by different fathers. As she helps Jolly make lemonade out of the lemons her life has given her, LaVaughn learns some lessons outside the classroom. With two show more kids hanging in the balance, they need to make the best out of life -- and they can only do it for themselves and each other.
My Review: Okay. Brace yourselves. This is a YA novel written in a teenaged girl's voice in free verse. What does this strongly imply I am about to do? Rant and invectivize and holler, right? As a rule, a safe bet.
Rule, meet exception.
I love LaVaughn and Jolly and their weird, codependent growing up. I am impressed by the genuineness of all the various lovings going on through the book. I am even overlooking the free-verse affectation. It's totally unnecessary to tell this story in any kind of verse, but whatever. LaVaughn's first person voice is poignantly like that of other young women I've known as they grew up, and makes me mist over a little bit.
Quote me on that and I will swear an oath on a stack of Bibles that you're lying.
The events that LaVaughn narrates remind me of my many attempts to save others. White knight, in more ways than one, rides in and saves the day...then poof you're invisible when things go right. It's like being a parent!
It IS being a parent. And that both sucks and blows. But it's also, in a weird masochistic way, the best feeling of all, because there is one fewer roadblock in someone else's path through life because you, O Savior Complex Haver, gave in and did what your warped sense of self insists is right.
Problem is...that warp is there because, more often than not, you ARE right.
La Vaughn's in for a long long haul. But she also gets something big in return, something not always obvious at the moment, and often not until a lot of life has passed beneath one's eyes. She gets to know in her heart that at least a few people had one less rock to carry, one more reason to smile, one small moment of being, if not feeling, cared about and for, because she lifted, carried, cared, smiled.
Most days that's enough. Come hear her tell about it. It's a good story. show less
This book is the third in the trilogy that began with Make Lemonade and True Believer. It took years (about 7 or something) between True Believer and This Full House, and there was a lot about the plot and characters that I didn't remember, but after reading a few pages of This Full House I was completely immersed in that world again. It's a realistic story set in a poor urban community about teenagers trying to succeed in various ways despite the many hardships that seem to be burying them. show more The writing is pretty simple but the characters are not. The story is both tragic and hopeful and full of complicated relationships. I'll admit that I cried, and I'm not usually very sappy. I love how perspectives from different generations are portrayed so beautifully, and the focus on the struggles that females face in academics, the medical world, and as lovers and mothers was really moving. I would highly recommend this whole series to everybody. show less
A YA novel written in poetic free verse: a style I usually love... but I’ll admit, the beginning didn’t start out so hot. It was difficult to get hooked, and I really wanted to be. The pacing felt rushed, skipping over details I was interested to know. But I stuck with it, and I’m glad I did, because somewhere around the halfway point, the story found its rhythm and at that point I ended up finishing it in one sitting.
The book follows fourteen-year-old LaVaughn, who takes a babysitting show more job after school to save money for college. Her employer, seventeen-year-old Jolly, is a struggling single mother doing her best to keep her two small children safe and cared for. When Jolly loses her job, LaVaughn does what she thinks is right (to the chagrin of her mother) and offers to babysit without pay until Jolly can find another job.
Though the writing style takes some getting used to, Make Lemonade ultimately blossoms into a tender, hopeful, and endearing story about empathy, resilience, and the power of caring for one another. show less
The book follows fourteen-year-old LaVaughn, who takes a babysitting show more job after school to save money for college. Her employer, seventeen-year-old Jolly, is a struggling single mother doing her best to keep her two small children safe and cared for. When Jolly loses her job, LaVaughn does what she thinks is right (to the chagrin of her mother) and offers to babysit without pay until Jolly can find another job.
Though the writing style takes some getting used to, Make Lemonade ultimately blossoms into a tender, hopeful, and endearing story about empathy, resilience, and the power of caring for one another. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 8
- Also by
- 11
- Members
- 4,179
- Popularity
- #6,023
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 143
- ISBNs
- 98
- Languages
- 4
- Favorited
- 3