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Wolff, Virginia Euwer. True believer - Book Review

Kliatt, Nov, 2002 by Claire Roser

(Sequel to Make Lemonade). Simon & Schuster. 264p. c2001. 0-689-85288-6. $7.99. JS*

To quote from the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, January 2001:

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It's a year or so after the events in Make Lemonade, and LaVaughn is in a special program to encourage students to prepare for college, working hard in school and focused on her future. The distractions are many, of course. The friends she has had since Head Start days have joined a fundamentalist church and are excluding LaVaughn from their lives since she isn't comfortable with their new religious beliefs. Her mother has a new boyfriend, Lester, who stays with them a lot and talks about moving them into a house with a yard, in a decent school system. The biggest distraction of all is LaVaughn's crush on Jody, a boy she has known a long time, who recently moved back into their apartment building. She daydreams about him, gets up the nerve to ask him to a school dance, but wonders what is wrong when their first kiss is a flop. When LaVaughn secretly enters Jody's home to leave him some cookies, she finds him kissing another boy and realizes the truth about why he isn't in love with her. Into this mix come the teenage mother and her little children featured in Make Lemonade. The children seem to be thriving in a special program, but their mother is struggling with school.

Wolff tells LaVaughn's story in the same blank verse she used in the previous book, which works well to propel the narrative forward, to express LaVaughn's emotions--her love, fears, jealousy, compassion, ambition--with the poetic images that capture a reader's heart and mind. True Believer is ultimately about beliefs--about what really matters in a person's life, about hope for the future, about love and caring. Readers, whether they share LaVaughn's struggles or not, will get right into her life and admire the hope and courage LaVaughn and her mother share. (Editor's Note: This novel has won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, among other awards, and is an ALA Best Book for YAs.) Claire Rosser, KLIATT

Wolff, Virginia Euwer. True believer - Book Review

Kliatt, Nov, 2002 by Claire Roser

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