True Believer (Hardcover)

by Virginia Euwer Wolff (Author) "My name is LaVaughn and I am 15..." (more)
Key Phrases: Brain Cells, The Children's Hospital, Aunt Verna (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
At 15, LaVaughn already knows that life is hard and that getting ahead takes a strong mind and an even stronger will. Surrounded by poverty and violence, she strives every day not to be just another inner-city statistic: "My hope is strong like an athlete. Every morning when we walk through the metal detectors to get into school ... it is an important day of dues-paying so I can go to college and be out of here." Last year when she babysat for Jolly, a young unwed mother, she saw firsthand how an unplanned pregnancy can diminish options. So she ignores the boys, studies hard, and hopes it will all be enough to get her into college. Then Jody moves back into the neighborhood. Once LaVaughn's childhood friend, Jody is now "suddenly beautiful... He could be in movies the way the parts of his face go together." If LaVaughn's choices were difficult before Jody, now they're almost impossible. What LaVaughn doesn't know is that Jody has difficult decisions of his own to make--decisions that could turn her carefully ordered world upside down.

The second novel in a proposed trilogy, True Believer picks up where the acclaimed Make Lemonade left off. Virginia Euwer Wolff's verse-prose is as sumptuous as ever, and her descriptions of LaVaughn's day-to-day life and feelings are sympathetic and achingly real. Readers will be eager to see where LaVaughn's choices take her in Wolff's next installment. (Ages 13 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

From Publishers Weekly
Eight years after the publication of her groundbreaking Make Lemonade, Wolff has surpassed herself with this sequel. LaVaughn once again narrates in blank verse, but turns from Jolly's story (the unwed mother for whom she babysat) to her own. Characters who stood on the periphery in Make Lemonade come to the fore here, especially LaVaughn's mother and LaVaughn's two best friends, Myrtle and Annie. Opening as the heroine embarks on 10th grade, the novel immediately introduces one of the pivotal issues of puberty: "Me and Myrtle & Annie,/ we all want to save our bodies for our right husband/ when he comes along./.../ There is several ways to do this saving." Myrtle and Annie opt for "Cross Your Legs for Jesus," a religious group with a narrowly prescribed outline for getting into heaven. With her characteristic intuition and wisdom, LaVaughn decides against this path ("It seems like a good idea at first./ But it doesn't feel right/ when I think about it"), and thus begins her solo journey to her own idea of faith. Along the way, the protagonist continues working toward college (with the support of her mother and some model teachers), falls in love, makes new friends and finds a vocation. With delicacy and sensitivity, Wolff examines the tensions that grow out of LaVaughn's decision to improve herself while leaving others behind, her choice to forgive in the face of Myrtle and Annie's intolerance, and her ability to trust despite a dangerous world. In delving into LaVaughn's life, Wolff unmasks the secret thoughts adolescents hold sacred and, in so doing, lets her readers know they are not alone. Ages 12-up. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; 1st edition (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689828276
• ISBN-13: 978-0689828270
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #870,511 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #12 in

  Books > Teens > Authors, A-Z > ( W ) > Wolff, Virginia Euwer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars INSPIRING AND BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN!, November 21, 2001

By	Sandra D. Peters "Seagull Books" (Prince Edward Island, Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is a story about growing up in poverty and the challenges of peer pressure, boys, school, gangs, drugs and a world that is not always kind. Many of those pressures appear in any girl's life, but it becomes even more challenging when financial resources are virtually non-existent, and the social stigma of poverty and a poor neighbourhood environment are major obstacles to overcome.

The character of La Vaughn is strong, vivid and dramatically portrayed. The message given in this book is to hold on to your dreams, work hard, get an eduation, believe in yourself and realize that one is only limited in attaining their goals by self-imposed restrictions. It may take time to achieve those goals, but nothing is impossible. This book is beautifully written and highly recommended reading for any girl who feels there may be a little of La Vaughn living somewhere deep inside her.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the possibility of a possibility, March 23, 2001

By A Customer

This book picks up the story of LaVaughn where "Make Lemonade" left off. It is written in the same free verse or open verse as Make Lemonade was.

It's a story of LaVaughn's struggle to rise above the past. It's chock full of symbolism. LaVaughn is a bird trying to free itself from the nest. She is a jellyfish that learns to adapt and "go on living when the odds are against it." She is a "Grammar Build Up" student who wants to learn how to properly use the word "whom."

She is a dichotomy among her friends. The boy she wants doesn't want her. She laughs to the boy who is interested in her. Her girlfriends "found" Jesus, whereas LaVaughn is seeking Jesus in her life. She looks to see God in the details while her friends don't want to look at the details becouse they are afraid of finding the devil.

In the end, LaVaughn celebrates her 16th birthday and is still looking forward to attending college, maybe becoming a nurse. She says, "I believe in the possibility of a possibility."

This is the kind of story you can cheer for. A book that has some hope in the future. It reminds me of "A Hope in the Unseen" by Suskind. I'll five it five stars and eagerly await the final tome to complete this trilogy.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read!, November 20, 2001

By A Customer

I didn't much care for "Make Lemonade", but "True Believer" is one heck of a great read! I could not put it down! There is just so much about this book that reads true-to-life, it's hard for me to site examples. LaVaughn is now a real person to me, a complex young woman struggling to find herself in a very confusing time and place. Her waxing and waning relationship with her two best friends, and her (hopeful) beginning of romance with Jody, the handsome boy-next-door are perfectly tragic-comedic! And I just love the name of the religious group LaVaughn's friends join to maintain their virginity---Cross Your Legs for Jesus. Such warmth and humor and heartbreakingly realistic writing make this a book teens and young adults can easily relate to. And congratulations to Wolff for winning the National Book Award---this book deserves the honor.