what my mother doesn't know by Sonya Sones

Bibliography
Sones, Sonya. 2003. what my mother doesn't know. New York: Simon Pulse.
ISBN-13:978-0-689-85553-5 ISBN-10:0-689-85553-2

Plot Summary
Great Book! This is about coming of age through the eyes of 15 year old Sophie. Moving from a young girl into maturity is a passage that we all have gone through experiencing the ups and downs of this journey. Sophie is a typical girl having best friends, looking for love, dealing with her changing body and issues with her parents. She learns to trust herself while transforming into a confident young adult.


Critical Analysis
what my mother doesn’t know by Sonya Sones is a novel written in verse of one poem after another. Teenagers will really enjoy how the poems are written in Sophie’s own voice as if she is talking to you and how easy the text flows from one emotion to another. Adolescence is one of the worst periods of a teenagers’ life. Sophie manages to find herself, deal with her peers, cope with parental issues, and finds true love. Teenagers will truly relate to Sophie and the issues she addresses. Sophie emerges with confidence in herself.

I had never read a young adult book in poetry verse and once I started it I could not put it down. The title alone will capture the interest of teenagers looking for a book to read. The cover was designed by Russell Gordon at Simon & Schuster. Sonya Sones drew the flipbook in the right hand corner on pages 231-259 patterned after the painting mentioned in the book called “Le Bal a Bougival” by Jean Renior. Sonya Sones was inspired to draw this flipbook due to the years she spent as an animator, and then later worked as a film editor for TV and movies. The text of this book was set in Tekton.

Review Excerpts
Amazon.com Review
Meet Sophie. She sees herself as the too-tall "Mount Everest of teenage girls," who, along with her friends, often suffers from "lackonookie disease." She's dating smoky, sexy Dylan, covertly chatting online with "cybersoul"-mate Chaz, and secretly nursing a crush on sweet, geeky Murphy. Her two best friends are closer to her than sisters, and she "hates hating" her soap opera-addicted mom, wishing "she would show half as much interest in my life as she does in Luke and Laura's." In other words, Sophie is a typical teenage girl. What is not so typical is how author Sonia Sones records all of Sophie's thoughts in a freewheeling verse that is such a naked outpouring of inner longing, most readers will blush in embarrassed recognition of their own remembered or current teenage desires. Sones gently leads both the reader and Sophie towards an understanding of the difference between love and lust as Sophie slowly comes to realize that Dylan's outsides are no match for Murphy's insides. Autobiographical of Sones, perhaps? The author claims it isn't so, and she's probably right. With her frank manner, lusty thoughts, and hidden insecurities, Sophie reflects many teenage girls, past and present. No woman will be able to read this heartfelt verse novel and not find a bit of herself in Sophie's secret, sexy thoughts. Sones's decadent, almost shamefully delicious collection of angst poems is a loving and amazingly accurate tribute to adolescent girlhood. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
*Starred Review* Drawing on the recognizable cadences of teenage speech, Sones (Stop Pretending) poignantly captures the tingle and heartache of being young and boy-crazy. The author keenly portrays ninth-grader Sophie's trajectory of lusty crushes and disillusionment whether she is gazing at Dylan's "smoldery dark eyes" or dancing with a mystery man to music that "is slow/ and/ saxophony." Best friends Rachel and Grace provide anchoring friendships for Sophie as she navigates her home life as an only child with a distant father and a soap opera-devotee mother whose "shrieking whips around inside me/ like a tornado." Some images of adolescent changes carry a more contemporary cachet, "I got my period I prefer/ to think of it as/ rebooting my ovarian operating system," others are consciously clich‚d, "my molehills/ have turned into mountains/ overnight" this just makes Sophie seem that much more familiar. With its separate free verse poems woven into a fluid and coherent narrative with a satisfying ending, Sophie's honest and earthy story feels destined to captivate a young female audience, avid and reluctant readers alike. Ages 12-up.

Connections
Other Verse Novels by Sonja Sones

What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know
ISBN-10: 0689876033 ISBN-13: 978-0689876035

One Of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies
ISBN-10: 1416907882 ISBN-13: 978-1416907886

Stop Pretending
ISBN-10: 0064462188 ISBN-13: 978-0064462181

Website
http://www.sonyasones.com For more information about Sonya Sones and her other works visit her website.

AWARDS/Honors
winner of the Iowa Teen Book Award (2005 -2006)
named by the American Library Association as one of the Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2004 and of 2005
Michigan Thumbs Up Award Honor Book (2002)
unanimously chosen an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults (2002)
unanimously chosen an American Library Association Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (2002)
named an International Reading Association Young Adults' Choice (2003)
named a Booklist Editor's Choice (2001)
voted a VOYA Top Shelf for Middle School Readers (2003)
Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award: YA Recommended Title (2003 -2004)
named a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age (2002, 2003, and 2004)
named a Texas Lone Star State Reading List Choice (2003 – 2004)
named a Top Ten Editor's Choice by Teenreads.com (2001)
named a Bookreporter.com Best of 2001 for Teens
chosen a Junior Library Guild selection
chosen a Scholastic Teen Age Book Club selection
chosen a Scholastic Trumpet Book Club selection
chosen a Scholastic Book Fair selection

Nominated for the following state awards:
Volunteer State Book Award (TN) (2004 – 2005)
Utah Children's Choice Beehive Award (2003 – 2004)
Garden State Teen Book Award (NJ) (2003 - 2004)
Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award (2004)
Rhode Island Teen Book Award (2004)
South Carolina Young Adult Book Award (2003 – 2004)
Missouri Gateway Reader's Choice Award for Teens (2003 – 2004)
Wyoming Library Association Soaring Eagle Book Award (2003 -2004)