What My Mother Doesn't Know
My name is Sophie
This book is about me.
It tells
the heart-stoppingly riveting story
of my first love.
And also of my second.
And, okay, my third love, too.
It's not that I'm boy crazy.
It's just that even though
I'm almost fifteen
I've been having sort of a hard time
trying to figure out the difference
between love and lust.
It's like
my mind
and my body
and my heart
just don't seem to be able to agree
on anything. (Summary from jacket cover and image from http://bybookorbycrook.files.wordpress.com/)
My Review:
I read and reviewed Sones' other book What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know previously and knew I wanted to check this one out. While I can't say this one is as funny as the other, it was still an enjoyable read. It's in poetry style format just like WMGDK, and I have to say I think this is a great strategy for teen readers. So many are daunted by the length of a book. Once they see the white space each page has, they jump to give it a try. Combine that with a good book talk promoting the book and I have students climbing over each other to be the first to read it. There's something very satisfying with whipping through a book so quickly. Today I read all 259 pages in 2 hours. My students were impressed, which honestly they shouldn't be but it does help with my promo.
Sophie is such a quirky girl. I cannot say even half of the ideas that pop into her head had or have ever popped into mine. She's more on the wild side, although deep down still a very sweet girl who's simply navigating her way through teen crossroads very charged with hormones. Her friends aren't far off from where she is. It's written as if it took place about when I was in high school (no surprise, its copyright is 2001), and that added another level of connection for me as a reader. I typically give books a rating when I tell students about them and I'd put this one at PG. There's kissing and a lot of talk about kissing, but it doesn't go beyond that with her relationships. There is one moment where a jerk-teenage-boy is dared by his friends to cop a feel, an incident where she feels violated and retaliates, but other than that it stays in the PG realm. It was a funny book, with very real teenage issues, but definitely not nearly as funny as WMGDK. I can tell you though that my students love this book and recommend it to each other.
My Rating: 3.5 stars
Sum it up: An eccentric, bit of a wild girl trying to figure out just exactly what she feels and thinks about boys, religion, her parents, and life.