Virginia Euwer Wolff Books
Make Lemonade. 5Q, 4P
- As corny as it sounds, this book is uplifting at the same time as it a depressing statement about the American dream, and it's all about the triumph of the human spirit.
All LaVaughn wanted was a nice job to make money and save for college, so she can be the first one in her family - in her entire apartment building! - to go there, and to make her mother proud. What she got was something far more complicated.
Jolly was a seventeen year old single mom with 2 kids, Jilly and Jeremy who needed a babysitter desperately so she can hold on to her dead end job at a factory. Her apartment was messy and smelled bad. But something in the way Jeremy held LaVaughn's hand made her take the job anyway. She immediately develops a special bond with Jolly and her kids, and reading about the relationships between these characters, their stories and how they band together to make changes for the better is amazing.
This book is excellent. LaVaughn has a strong voice and the portrayal of the lives of the people in their situations is absolutely brilliant. Not only is it gripping, it has a message.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
True Believer. 5Q, 4P
- Verna LaVaughn is back, in yet another compelling and brilliant volume from Wolff. I prefer the first, but the second is still amazing. LaVaugn still dreams about college, and now it is finally looking closer than ever before. She's taking grammar buildup and loving learning, and other things are happening in her life too. Her usually stern mother has fallen in love, and so has LaVaughn - with an old neighbour, Jody who's returned to their building once again. More of the same - and that's a compliment.
Probably Still Nick Swansen. 4Q, 3P
- Nick is 18, and Special Ed. He's from Room 19, and knows that wherever you go, the stigma follows you. Nick likes his dog Patsy, he likes learning about amphibians, and he'd like to go to the prom with Shana, another Special Ed girl who "went up" to regular school. But nobody from Room 19 ever went to the prom before. Are you allowed? What will the other kids say? He doesn't want them to think he's a "drooler". Not as good as Wolff's other books, this one is still good and touching.
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