What My Mother Doesn't Know (Paperback)

by Sonya Sones (Author)
Key Phrases: New Year, That September, Mary Beth

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Meet Sophie. She sees herself as the too-tall "Mount Everest of teenage girls," who, along with her friends, often suffers from "lackonookie disease." She's dating smoky, sexy Dylan, covertly chatting online with "cybersoul"-mate Chaz, and secretly nursing a crush on sweet, geeky Murphy. Her two best friends are closer to her than sisters, and she "hates hating" her soap opera-addicted mom, wishing "she would show half as much interest in my life as she does in Luke and Laura's." In other words, Sophie is a typical teenage girl. What is not so typical is how author Sonia Sones records all of Sophie's thoughts in a freewheeling verse that is such a naked outpouring of inner longing, most readers will blush in embarrassed recognition of their own remembered or current teenage desires. Sones gently leads both the reader and Sophie towards an understanding of the difference between love and lust as Sophie slowly comes to realize that Dylan's outsides are no match for Murphy's insides. Autobiographical of Sones, perhaps? The author claims it isn't so, and she's probably right. With her frank manner, lusty thoughts, and hidden insecurities, Sophie reflects many teenage girls, past and present. No woman will be able to read this heartfelt verse novel and not find a bit of herself in Sophie's secret, sexy thoughts. Sones's decadent, almost shamefully delicious collection of angst poems is a loving and amazingly accurate tribute to adolescent girlhood. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
*Starred Review* Drawing on the recognizable cadences of teenage speech, Sones (Stop Pretending) poignantly captures the tingle and heartache of being young and boy-crazy. The author keenly portrays ninth-grader Sophie's trajectory of lusty crushes and disillusionment whether she is gazing at Dylan's "smoldery dark eyes" or dancing with a mystery man to music that "is slow/ and/ saxophony." Best friends Rachel and Grace provide anchoring friendships for Sophie as she navigates her home life as an only child with a distant father and a soap opera-devotee mother whose "shrieking whips around inside me/ like a tornado." Some images of adolescent changes carry a more contemporary cachet, "I got my period I prefer/ to think of it as/ rebooting my ovarian operating system," others are consciously clich‚d, "my molehills/ have turned into mountains/ overnight" this just makes Sophie seem that much more familiar. With its separate free verse poems woven into a fluid and coherent narrative with a satisfying ending, Sophie's honest and earthy story feels destined to captivate a young female audience, avid and reluctant readers alike. Ages 12-up.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 259 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing (February 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689855532
• ISBN-13: 978-0689855535
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (210 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #68,168 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An honest and heartbreaking book., July 29, 2004

By	Teenreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: What My Mother Doesn't Know (Hardcover)

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

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sonya sones at her best, August 13, 2006

By	Alexandra (Medford, MA) - See all my reviews

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.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ~* the perfect book on the mind of a teenage girl!, March 5, 2002

By	"jnini" (tAipei, tAiwAn~) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What My Mother Doesn't Know (Hardcover)

Wow, "what my mom doesn't know" is among one of the TOP books I read recently. It tells the story of Sophie, a 15 years old girl. Through Sonya Sones, I was able to see the life and struggles of a teenage girl such as, fights with her mother, her appearances, and her love life, which I also found parts of me inside of Sophie as a 16 years old. As the story progresses, I felt as if I was living through the experiences also. It's mainly because of the format that the book is written in. Sonya Sones tells the mind and feelings of Sophie through direct, bold and honest poems. With so little words she describes the important moments clearly and perfectly but yet the words she chose were also so powerful. You would honestly have to read it yourself to understand what I really mean. I finished this book in no time, because the author really knows how to let me keep flipping onto the next page, wanting to find out what happens next. Aniways, enough said, this is a really sweet and touching story of a teenage girl whom I believe all of us would discover little pieces of ourselves from her, no matter past or future.