Book Review: WHAT MY MOTHER DOESN'T KNOW

Book Review, Genre 3: WHAT MY MOTHER DOESN’T KNOW

Author: Sonya Sones

Title: What My Mother Doesn’t Know

Illustrator: Jennifer Reyes

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: 2001

ISBN: 9780689855535

Plot summary: Told in the poetic form of novel in verse, this is the story of Sophie, a 15-year-old Jewish girl, describing the ups and downs of her life with a focus on her relationships with a series of boys until she finds Mr. Right.

Critical analysis: The title of the book caught my attention first: What My Mother Doesn’t Know. As a daughter and as a mom myself, I was curious to find out what the mother didn’t know. This is the story of Sophie, a 15-year-old girl who knows more about her parent’s relationship than they realize and who is having relations with boys – also without her parent’s knowledge. Told in verse novel style, each poem can stand alone as a moving, independent work. However, put together in this 259-page book, the individual poems turn into a novel that might be a quick read, but has plenty of depth.

As a former 15-year-old girl whose parents were oblivious to her while they worked on their failing marriage, I empathized with Sophie. Sones’ use of emotion in her poems flowed naturally from poem to poem and made me feel as if I were Sophie. Sophie desires the attention of her mother and father and realizes that she will never get the warmth from her father she desires. Sophie hasn’t given up on her mom, though, and as it turns out, her mother does understand what Sophie is going through once she takes the time to truly listen to her daughter: “’…is something the matter?’/ ‘Yes,’ I say./ ‘Everything.’/ ‘I know how you feel,’ she says.”

Review excerpt:

• 2012 Privacy Between the Pages Selected Books for Older Children and Teens, Cooperative Children’s Book Center
• 2004-2005 Volunteer State Book Award, Nominee Tennessee
• 2003 Young Adults’ Choices, International Reading Association
• 2001 Booklist Editors’ Choice: Books for Youth, American Library Association

From Booklist, Nov. 15, 2001 (Vol. 98, No. 6) by Hazel Rochman: The poetry is never pretentious or difficult; on the contrary, the very short, sometimes rhythmic lines make each page fly. Sophie's voice is colloquial and intimate, and the discoveries she makes are beyond formula, even while they are as sweetly romantic as popular song. A natural for reluctant readers, this will also attract young people who love to read. 

From Kirkus Reviews, Sept. 15, 2001 (Vol. 69, No. 18): Laid out in a series of mostly free-verse poems, however, 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.

Connections:

·         Students can learn more about author Sonya Sones and her other works at: http://www.sonyasones.com/

·         Other books by Sonya Sones:

o   Saving Red. (Available Oct. 18, 2016) ISBN: 9780062370280

o   Stop Pretending. ISBN: 0060283874

o   To Be Perfectly Honest. ISBN: 9780689876042

o   What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know. (sequel to What My Mother Doesn’t Know) IBSN: 0689876025

·         Similar books like What My Mother Doesn’t Know:

o   The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder. ISBN: 9781442417434

o   The Geography of Girlhood by Kirsten Smith. ISBN: 9780316017350

o   Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. ISBN: 9780060292898

o   The Secret of Me by Meg Kearney. ISBN: 0892553227

Bibliography

Cover, Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Personal photograph by Amy Wilson. October 7, 2016.

Sones, S. (2001). What my mother doesn’t know. New York: Simon & Schuster