Make Lemonade

by Virginia Euwer Wolff

Book Overview

An award-winning novel about growing up and making choicesViginia Euwer Wolff's groundbreaking novel, written in free verse, tells the story of fourteen-year-old LaVaughn, who is determined to go to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805022287
• ISBN13: 9780805022285
• Release Date: May 1993
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.7" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 10 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 9

Customer Reviews

Look beyond the title

Before I begin my review, I would first like to say a word or two to the author. Ahem. Ms. Virginia Euwer Wolff allow me to thank you for writing such a wonderful book. I've read many many young adult books in my day, but your book is one of the first to move beyond the text in the millions of ways that it did. You've penned a book that is as carefully written as it is fantastic. So, Ms. Euwer, why on earth did you give it the namby-pamby title "Make Lemonade"? I've never read a title that made me want to avoid a book more. Something called "Make Lemonade" sounds like a more sentimental version of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books. Your other books, like "True Believer", have somewhat bland titles, but at least they don't actively scare away the intelligent teens that wouldn't step foot near a book with the overly optimistic title that this one has. To sum up, great book, hate the title. In "Make Lemonade" we have a story about self-discovery and self-recovery. LaVaughn is fourteen years old and is going to go to college someday. She knows this fact better than she knows anything else. Of course, that means she needs money, and so she answers an ad for a babysitter. The woman (if you can call her that) advertising is Jolly, a seventeen year-old single mother of a two year-old and a baby. As LaVaughn and Jolly get to know one another, the younger girl begins to see clearly the cracks and fissures in Jolly's madcap desperate life. As the two grow closer LaVaughn has to try to simultaneously help Jolly out while maintaining her own integrity and dealing with the guilt and enabling issues of being her employer's only friend. The book is just as much about the trials of being poor in America today as it is about two girls trying to learn how to create a life of self-sustainability. LaVaughn isn't exactly from the suburbs herself, so she understands the world Jolly is coming from. Even so, she has to figure out to what extent she's holding Jolly back from taking the necessary steps to ensure a better life for herself and her kids. If Jolly's so poor, should LaVaughn give her back all the babysitting money she's earned? Is LaVaughn helping Jolly live in denial if she's merely offering help? Is it wrong that LaVaughn is taking the money of a desperate woman so that she herself can go to college and escape the viscious cycle of poverty? The book moves from practical situations and motions to philosophical ponderings about the nature of existence itself. Written entirely in free verse in a series of sixty-six poems (of a sort) we learn more about the characters and their lives through this unique medium than we could have ever hoped to with prose. Wolff is an accomplished writer, her stories capturing the honesty of the hardships that come with poverty. You won't find any miracles or sudden changes in human behavior in this book unless they come through good hard work. This book can make you simultaneously love and resent Jol

When life gives you lemons...

Virginia Euwer Wolff really hit a homerun with this book. Make Lemonade embodies and captures all of the qualities that a good book should have. It captures many aspects of teenage life, and dwells opon the misfortunes that some may stumble upon. Jolly is a seventeen year old girl who has had a hard life. Left with two children, after a slew of bad boyfriends, she is having a hard time raising her kids, and giving them just their basic needs. LaVaughn is a very smart 15 year old, and is looking for a job. She sees an advertisement at school for a wanted babysitter. In no time at all, LaVaughn is watching Jeremy, and Jilly, Jolly's children. LaVaughn shares a special bond witht hese children, and genuinely cares about them. Yet in life, things go wrong sometimes, and a lot of times there is then nothing that can be done to make it easier. Read Make Lmeonade, by Virginia Euwer Wolff for a look into the life, and heart of a little girl, with big dreams.

awesome for teens

The novel Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff is about a fourteen girl named LaVaughn who baby-sits for a sixteen-year old girl named Jolly. The book tells about what happens while she baby-sits, about the family and their hardships, and about how the job affects her whole life. The story takes place in LaVaughn's home city, a place where many of the people can barely afford the roof over their heads. The people living here are not in good shape; there are many gangs, drugs, crowded high schools, and low security. Most of the residents are poverty-stricken, single parents, pregnant teens, criminals, or unemployed. The main characters fit some of these descriptions. LaVaughn lives in tiny apartment with her single mother. She attends a crowded high school where there are many gangs, drugs, etc. LaVaughn's father died when he got in between a gang fight that he wasn't even a part of. Jolly a sixteen-year old, single mother of two also has her share of problems; she was left by the men who gave those babies to her, and she can't get a job that pays well enough to support her growing children. She hires LaVaughn to baby-sit after school for her daily. Though sometimes LaVaughn doesn't get her full pay, she gets the love and admiration of the two children Jilly and Jeremy, and the friendship of Jolly. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, because it was not "sugar coated," or glamorized. LaVaughn's life mirrors the plight of many of the people living in this country. I also liked the way that LaVaughn helps Jolly in her time of need, most people would make her pay right away, or they would leave. LaVaughn and her mother share a common relationship that many teens experience with their own parents, no matter if they are rich or poor. LaVaughn and her mother can get in fights or annoy each other, but LaVaughn obeys and respects her mom and they love each other. I also liked the drama and suspense incorporated into this book, it wasn't like a mystery, but the actions left you wanting to see what happened next. I liked how LaVaughn had goals set for herself; she had wanted to go to college since she was in fifth grade, and she started to baby-sit for Jolly in order to get her dream off of the ground and start to save money to pay for her education. One other thing I liked about the book was that LaVaughn was not perfect, and she had to resolve her problems herself, they didn't just magically go away. Some of the characters in this book were easy to relate to, and it was easy to see their points of view, and the hardships of the lives of people who live like this. I would recommend this book to mostly teenage girls who like to see how people's live are different or harder than their own. This book was great, you wont be able to put it down until you finish.

Sweet and tangy

When I first read this book several years ago, I was bowled over by its power. Since then, I have returned to LaVaughn's story several times. Each time, I experience the same sense of joy and awe at Wolff's ability to tell a story, and to create sympathy without judging.LaVaughn is an inner city kid trying to make good by earning a college scholarship. Her hardworking, firm-but-loving mom supports her, but urges LaVaughn to put academics first. Jolly, a teenaged mom who has been roughly handled by life, requests a babysitter, and LaVaughn responds.Wolff makes us question every stereotype we may hold: that teenaged moms brought their problems upon themselves, that people who are out of work are lazy, that every poor person is anxious to accept a handout. None of these preconceived notions is true for Jolly or the other characters in the novel. Yet, while painting every character with a sympathetic brush, Wolff does not release any of them from responsibility. Life works out best, she reminds us, for those that rise above the despair of a hard situation and do something to make it better.Wolff's free verse style creates strong images of Jolly's life, both stark and joyful: the battered card where she scrawls her desperate plea for help, the filthy floor in her apartment, Jeremy's triumph at being toilet trained, the blooming of a lemon plant that represents the hopes of children despite the harshness of their lives.

Make Lemonade

This story about LaVaughn, a fourteen year old baby-sitter and Jolly, a seventeen year old mother, was very touching story. One part I especially enjoyed was when Jolly was telling LaVaughn about the story her teacher told her. I found that "You should have known you was getting a lemon. But you don't always know at first. You even thank them for it most of the time." is very true. Many times when what turns out to be something hard is something that you say thank you for at first.