Book Review: MAKE LEMONADE
*NOTE: This book review was created for a class at TWU.


1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wolff, Virginia Euwer. MAKE LEMONADE. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc. ISBN 059048141X.

2. PLOT SUMMARY: Virginia Euwer Wolff weaves an uplifting story of hope in the novel in verse, MAKE LEMONADE. It tells the story of 14-year-old inner-city African-American LaVaughn who takes a part-time job sitting for 17-year-old Jolly's two children, Jilly and Jeremy. LaVaughn comes to realize her love for the children at about the same time she realizes that Jolly isn't going to make it on her own. Although she is 3 years younger than Jolly, LaVaughn shows great maturity in helping the single mother "take hold" and get her life back. In doing so, LaVaughn is constantly battling to keep her own dreams of college alive. The ending is bittersweet, with Jolly's little family growing away from LaVaughn in their new-found independence.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS: Symbolism, startlingly vivid slice-of-life imagery, and rhythm propel the reader through a story of loss, struggle, hope, and finally, independence in MAKE LEMONADE. Wolff has taken the 19th century genre of "novel in verse" and made it fresh again by confronting real-life dangers such as sexual harassment and drug use in unrhymed free verse so packed with imagery and truthful expression that the reader senses the narrator's immediacy and feels like she is present, telling her story. This intimate sense of the present permeates the first lines of the novel, as the narrator says, "I am telling you this just the way it went...Other people would maybe tell it different/but I was there." Wolff's simple, not always grammatically correct, but always frankly observant lines capture 14-year-old LaVaughn's voice brilliantly.

Subtle symbolism runs throughout the narrative in the form of the lemon seeds LaVaughn plants in a pot for Jolly's son Jeremy. The seeds fail to grow, and LaVaughn brings in new seeds. The two young women argue briefly over whether to tell Jeremy that these are new seeds because his seeds didn't grow or just to plant the new seeds and pretend they're the old ones. At first glance, it seems like a simple argument, but tied up in it are Jolly's attempt to shelter her children from the great disappointment she's suffered in her short life, and LaVaughn's belief that the truth, even if it's dissapointing, is more important. Eventually, with a little fertilizer, the seeds sprout, Jolly starts to make it on her own, and she stops LaVaughn in the hall at school to say, "Hey, you wouldn't guess what come up out of that dirt...We got a little green thing, a little lemon thing comin' up."

For all the dark elements in the novel, the story balances dark with light, especially in the slice-of-life imagery interwoven with the dialogue and action. In Chapter 34, LaVaughn takes Jolly to high school with her, a place that for Jolly holds nothing but broken dreams and shameful memories. As the approach the building, Jolly begins to walk in a way that LaVaughn calls Underdrive, a shimmy full of unease and false bravado. The description is heavy and heartbreaking, until LaVaughn notices the way Jolly's son Jeremy is walking, like "there's a band inside him giving him rhythm," and that everyone has a shimmy, the whole crowded campus of students. The description ends with, "and if I squint my eyes it's a circus,/somebody ought to sell cotton candy,/and there should be confetti." In ten short lines, dark has turned light, and hopelessness has become hope.

Finally, MAKE LEMONADE reflects the ebb and flow of life and emotion through rhythm. This rhythm is created through several poetic devices, including repetition, line length, and the use of capitalization. All three devices work together in one scene where LaVaughn, who is babysitting for Jolly, confronts a potential catastrophe. First, repetition of the word "and" fast-forwards the action:

And in comes Jeremy. "Looky," he says, holding up his hand
and from her bed has already come
a scream that the world is ending.
In Jeremy's hand like the Statue of Liberty
is a bunch of hair, clean sheared,
I quick look around his head -
How did he get scissors at his age,
what has he cut,
and where's the blood,
and will I be calling 911, all these things I'm thinking at once.

Wolff immediately follows the short, choppy waves of emotion and action with two long lines, expressing LaVaughn's undercurrent of thought.

But underneath I think I knew the instant I saw his face
the same time with her screaming I absolutely think I knew.

The scene is masterfully crescendos when LaVaughn finally bursts out, "Jeremy, I canNOT beLIEVE what you've DONE/to your SISster," the capitalized syllables stamping out a rhythm as well as any stress marks in iambic tetrameter.

This analysis only touches upon a few of the masterful techniques Wolff employs to create a novel which is light and dark, sad and hopeful. My grandmother often says, "The devil's in the details." In MAKE LEMONADE, the truth is in the details, details of life which can be fleeting, but which can also contain the essence of truth. Readers both young and old are sure to relate to the disappointments, triumphs, and seeds of wisdom found in MAKE LEMONADE.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
School Library Journal Starred Review: "The poetic form emphasizes the flow of the teenager's language and thought. The form invites readers to drop some preconceptions about novels, and they will find the plot and characters riveting. MAKE LEMONADE is a triumphant, outstanding story."

Publishers Weekly: "Radiant with hope, this keenly observed and poignant novel is a stellar addition to YA literature. Ages 11-14."

5. CONNECTIONS
*For at-risk students, this book could be one of several read which deal with teen pregnancy, dropping out, struggling and succeeding such as Angela Johnson's THE FIRST PART LAST (ISBN 0689849230) and STEALING HENRY (ISBN 1596430451) by Carolyn McCullough.
*This novel could be part of a genre study on novels in verse. Others to consider would be Karen Hesse's OUT OF THE DUST (ISBN 0590360809) and SPLIT IMAGE (ISBN 0688162495) by Mel Glenn.