MAKE LEMONADE

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Wolff, Virginia Euwer. 1993. MAKE LEMONADE. New York: H. Holt. ISBN: 0805022287 Reading level: Ages 10 -14

PLOT SUMMARY

14-year-old, Verna LaVaughn wants to go to school and needs money. One day, she finds a posting that reads: ‘babysitter needed bad” on the school bulletin board and contacted Jolly, the person who posted that. Jolly, who is a 17-year-old single parent, is living with two children, Jeremy and Jilly. Jolly’s apartment is “broken-down looking, disorderly and smells.” Jolly needs the babysitter while she is working. La Vaughn’s babysitting seems not easy at first, and sometimes Jeremy cuts her sister’s hair while La Vaughn is doing homework. One day, Jolly got sexually harassed by her boss and got fired. One day, Jolly got harassed sexually by her boss and got fired. Jolly still need a job and money. But, she is really helpless and incompetent to the extent she couldn’t spell her words. Finally, La Vaughn recommends that Jolly should get the benefit from the ‘Moms Up Program.’ This government support program helps single mothers go back to school and get a job and cares for the babies while mother is working. This program also educates children with teachers and Jolly wants La Vaughn to take it. With this, La Vaughn continues to have a relationship with Jolly’s family. There was one more serious accident. Jilly choked on a jungle spider toy and went to the emergency room. Jolly went to the hospital and La Vaughn took Jeremy to her home to take care of him. After that, Jolly doesn’t call La Vaughn and needs help from others. She almost finished her study, and tries to interviews for some companies. Everything is getting better than ever. Both Jolly and La Vaughn lives their separate lives.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

It is surprising that it is poetry. It has a long and continuous story and it has many poetic devices; rhythm, rhymes, and short meaningful sentences. This prose poetry has many lemons which are informally used to refer a person or thing that proves to be defective, imperfect, or unsatisfactory. Those lemons in this book are social problems such as drugs, divorces, poverty, sexual harassment, and education, etc. This story is about the process the lemon is changed into the lemonade. Although both characters, Jolly and La Vaughn are in the similar situation, they live in different way. One has hope and the other doesn’t. It is an important massage of this book. La Vaughn has a dream to go to college to be a teacher. She is passionate to earn money for her future, study, and even helps others in need. But, Jolly is in despair, sorrow, and incompetent to care of her children. Jolly, with La Vaughn’s help, strives to be active in her life and children. She went back to school and got a job. This book can be recommended for the value of story rather than the poetry value. It is a good example that even poetry has a moral lesson with a touching story.

REVIEW EXCERPTS

Publishers Weekly (July 11, 1994)
“Radiant with hope, this keenly observed and poignant novel is a stellar addition to YA literature,'' said PW in a starred review, praising Wolff's use of ``meltingly lyric blank verse'' to tell of two inner-city teenage girls struggling toward better lives.”

Horn Book Guide (September 1, 1993)
Fiction: O Fourteen-year-old LaVaughn accepts the job of baby-sitting Jolly's two small children but quickly realizes that the young woman, a seventeen-year-old single mother, needs as much help and nurturing as her two neglected children. The four become something akin to a temporary family, and through their relationship each makes progress toward a better life. Sixty-six brief chapters, with words arranged on the page like poetry perfectly echo the patterns of teenage speech. Horn Rating: Superior, well above average.


CONNECTIONS

Discussion lists for children
*Describe the meaning of lemon and lemonade in this book.
*What’s your lemon in your life and what can you do for your lemonade?
*What would you do to improve the quality of a life if you were Jolly and/or LaVaughn?

Other examples of prose poems
*Baudelaire, Charles http://www.raingod.com/angus/Poetry/Poems/c_baudelaire.html
*Bly Robert http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/olp/gs/1.2/bushell.html
*Machado Antonio http://www.geocities.com/williamwchow/poem/machado.htm