What My Mother Doesn't Know Review

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Sones, Sonya. 2001. What My Mother Doesn't Know. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 0-689-84114-0.

What My Mother Doesn't Know is a coming-of-age novel written in verse that is funny, sad, and familiar if you are or ever have been a teenager looking for love. As Sophie herself describes the book:

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. Sophie is struggling to figure out what love is amidst the drama of her parent's failing marriage and the daily trauma of negotiating her freshman year. She has a boyfriend who she doesn't really like although he is the teenage ideal. Eventually they break up because they have nothing in common. She then falls for a cyber boyfriend only to discover that he is a pervert. She quickly "deletes" that relationship. On Halloween, she dances with a masked man at a school party who becomes the unidentified boy of her dreams. When the winter break comes and her best friends Rachel and Grace leave town, Sophie unexpectedly falls for the school nerd, Robin Murphy. They have many common interests and one night while listening to music together Sophie and Robin share a dance, revealing Robin as the mystery man! Of course, the hard part comes when Sophie has to face her friends and admit that she cares for Robin who offers to let her "off the hook" when he tells her, "It's okay, Sophie, ... I'll understand if it has to end." Finally the decision must be made when school resumes and Sophie has to decide where to sit at lunch, with her girlfriends or with Robin. Sophie stands rooted to the spot scanning the cafeteria until she chooses her heart over her fear and hurries to sit with Robin. The story ends with the upbeat message "...everything's going to be all right." Every poem in What My Mother Doesn't Know is complete, yet begs you to turn the page for more until the satisfying conclusion to Sophie's story. I read this book quickly then reread it to appreciate every thoughtfully picked line, to be sure that I savored each memory it stirred in me of the angst and joy of being a teenager. Sones is gifted at expressing the language of young people, although at some point some of the references may become dated, there is an understanding of the universal moments shared by teenagers in her writing.

Sonya Sones has written five novels in verse for the young adult audience. She has received many honors including the Myra Cohn Livingston Poetry Award, A Christopher Award, and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize nomination. What My Mother Doesn't Know has received much recognition including the following honors according to Sonya Sones on her website http://www.sonyasones.com:

listed by the American Library Association as one of the Top 100 Most Banned Books of the Decade (2000–2010) listed by the American Library Association as one of the Top Ten Most Challenged Books (2004, 2005, 2010, and 2011)

winner of the Iowa Teen Book Award (2005–2006)
Michigan Thumbs Up Award Honor Book (2002)
unanimously chosen an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults (2002)
named an International Reading Association Young Adults' Choice (2003)
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 She also has this to say about her book, "I’m very proud of the fact that What My Mother Doesn’t Know is #31 on the American Library Association’s list of The 100 Most Banned Books of The Decade. It also was one of the Top Ten Most Banned Books of 2004, 2005, 2010, and 2011!".  If you'd like to know why, you will have to get a copy and read page 46.

Children's Literature commented, " The highs and lows of Sophie's life reflect much of the excitement and anguish that mark adolescence maintaining and developing new friendships;experiencing first love;despairing of parents in the midst of marital strife and personal transitions;and facing down religious bigotry and collective scape-goating. Sophie negotiates all of these life-events with honesty, openness and humor as she reconstructs her identity and learns to trust her own perspective."
Publisher's Weekly gave the book a starred review saying. "Drawing on the recognizable cadence of teenage speech, the author poignantly captures the tingle and heartache of being young and boy-crazy." And, "She weaves separate free verse poems into a fluid and coherent narrative with a satisfying ending." 
Kirkus Reviews praised the format, stating that, "Laid out in a series of mostly free-verse poems,..., the text gets at the emotional state of this girl so completely and with such intensity that a conventional narrative framework would simply dilute the effect." 

My daughter reads all of Sonya Sones books and shares them with her friends. I often recommend them to teens in my library based on the reactions I hear from my daughter and her friends, but this is the first one I actually read myself. Now I can't wait to read the others. Of course I would like to say I have read everything I recommend, but time is limited, so I do listen to what the families I work with say after reading something, look at reviews, then offer a selection when someone asks. I haven't had one complaint, yet, on Sones books, although it may be because I usually give them to teens 13 and up. The next author I suggest when a teen enjoys Sones is Ellen Hopkins who also writes in verse and tackles teen topics, often dark and traumatic, so again, for teens 13 and up. I also offer these two authors to reluctant readers because there are less words on a page than in a traditional novel and the reading flows quickly from one page to another. 

Barnes & Noble. Editorial reviews. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/what-my-mother-doesnt-know-sonya-sones/1100363856?ean=9781442493858. (Accessed September 30, 2013.)

Sones, Sonya. 
http://www.sonyasones.com/books/whatmymother/a_syn_book.html.  (Accessed September 30, 2013.)