What My Mother Doesn't Know

It is amazing how this was written. What looks like a collection of poems is a compelling coming of age story. I have never read anything like it but hope to write something as striking in a similar fashion. So inspiring.

This is an amazing book with a great story line. Talking about how she falls in love but how love is funny and how love can die.

This is the story of Sophie, who is a typical teenage girl. She is on the path to finding her true love, but it's not as easy as it seems. First there's Lou, who drools, then sexy Dylan, then her "cybersoulmate," Chaz. But then, at the Halloween dance, she finds someone she connects with, but he's masked. She makes it her personal mission to find her masked man. When she does, she is shocked, but not as repelled as she first thinks. This book is told entirely in free verse, and is a quick read, but is very realistic about the power of peer pressure, and very touching.

I adore this book! My friends and I make references to it all the time and it's great for reluctant readers. Sophie says, "I'm not boy-crazy. It's just that my mind and my heart and my body don't agree." So true! First, she meets Dylan in a carpool going home from a party. At first he's just her friend's big sister's best friend's little brother. Then he turns into a boyfriend, good to share kisses and secrets with. Second, there's Chaz. An online cyber soul mate, as they call him, Sophie enjoys talking to him but feels guilty because she thinks she likes him but she is dating Dylan. While that is not the cause, Sophie breaks up with Dylan. They are uneasy around each other for the rest of the book. Then Sophie stops talking to Chaz when she find out what he likes to do in libraries. And before you know it, it's Halloween. Sophie wears an ugly rose-covered dress to Rachel's house, where she changes into a much cooler black dress to go to a dance in as a beatnik. At the dance, she thinks the drummer is playing only to her and then a girl kisses him "so hard on the mouth it looked like it would hurt" at the end of the song. She also suspects recurring love for Dylan as she watches him play guitar. Then comes the most exciting part of the book, Sophie's slow dance with a masked man. He makes her feel like he is her soul mate and that he knows her every inner thought. She says she wants to dance with him all night, "and then kiss." So of course she goes about looking for her masked man. Rachel says she is in love with his essence. Grace says she's in love with his body parts. Sophie says she's in love with the essence of his body parts, hee hee. Then Winter Break comes and her friends skip town. So Sophie has ehr own little vacation around town and spends some time with Murphy, a lovable geek whom she has a small crush on. Well, maybe not so small, as she is always imagining kissing him. And then, while drawing henna tattoos and listening to music, Murphy and Sophie start slow-dancing and Sophie realizes that Murphy is you-know-who! And so that starts Sophie's relationship with Murphy, or Robin as she calls him. It is stronger and more important than any relationship she had with Chaz and Dylan. Robin just seems so perfect, especially when Sophie is scared of what her friends will think and Robin says he "will understand if it has to end." Of course, it doesn't. Sophie doesn't really tell Rachel and Grace, actions speak louder than words. This is a great book and while it can look kind of lengthy, it's a wonderful trip through the meanings of verse, love, and adolescence.

There have been a lot of books written in verse lately. Sonya Sones was one of the first, and still the best. Her first book, STOP PRETENDING: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy was a deep, sad and moving book. WHAT MY MOTHER DOESN'T KNOW is a little different --- it's just as good, just not nearly as sad. Sophie is 15 and as interested in boys as the rest of us. She finally gets asked out by Dylan, the boy of her dreams, and totally knows it's true love. But then she starts noticing weirdness. Like she's taller than him, he actually watches the movie on their dates, and he doesn't want her telling his parents she's Jewish. Sophie doesn't feel right about Dylan, but she also likes him and doesn't want to end it. In an attempt to find something else, Sophie begins an online romance, and I won't even tell you how that turns out! Let's just say it gives her the push she needs to move on from Dylan to...Murph. But liking Murph turns out to be a whole lot harder than liking Dylan. To put it bluntly, Murph is a total dork --- he's so uncool that people say, "Don't be such a Murph," when they mean "Don't be such a geek." So why is Sophie thinking of him every minute? And how is she going tell her friends that she likes the biggest loser in school? Deep down she knows that if she doesn't come clean with her feelings for Murph she'll be as bad as everyone else who makes fun of him --- but still, it won't be easy. WHAT MY MOTHER DOESN'T KNOW is an honest and heartbreaking book about a girl being true to herself, trusting her friends, and having the strength to love what makes her heart happy. Sones's lovely poems are so good that I'd say she must be a poet first and a storyteller second --- except that her story is also that good! Sones really captures the nervousness of dating a guy, the way friends can get jealous, the sorrow at realizing that you just don't like him anymore, and finding the strength to love what makes your heart happy. We should all be so brave. --- Reviewed by Kate Torpie

I read this book a few days ago and it was one of the BEST books I've EVER read! I started reading it, and since it was for silent reading at school, I wanted to pace myself so that I wouldn't need to get a new book soon...but I couldn't help it. I just kept flipping each page after the next. The first time I sat down to read it, I got to around the 66th page. The next time I sat down to read it, I finished all 276 pages!! This book, in a nutshell, made me laugh out loud and get tears in my eyes at one pont. This book is about a girl named Sophie who is in high school and is going out with a guy named Dylan, who she is very much in love with. After a while of going out with him, she meets Chaz online and falls for him...but she's still with Dylan! She starts loosing interest in Dylan and soon finds out what a disgusted pervert this Chaz guy is. There's a guy named Murphy in her art class that no one even thinks about...like that. But for some reason, she wants to KISS him! She and Murphy hang out and become good friends. When he asks her out on a DATE, Sophie tells Murphy that she just wants to be friends...but is that how she really feels??This book is such a GREAT book and if you are a teenage girl, READ THIS BOOK...NO QUESTION!! I usually DON'T like reading. But I couldn't even help myself in this case. Read it, you'll find out what I'm talking about. It's not even really 276 pages long. Each page is written like a poem so you're flipping through those pages really fast. Buy it or borrow it from a friend and see what I'm talking about!