Sones, Sonya. 2001. What my mother doesn’t know. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
Book Excerpt:
“During French Class
Je ne peux pas conjugate the verbs
parce que I’m sitting right across
from my old boyfriend Lou
and his lips.
I feel myself turning green
when I look at them:
thick, chapped,
gleaming under a drizzle of spit.
How could I ever
have let him kiss me?
I can even remember
wanting him to kiss me.
What could I have been thinking?
That mouth of his,
so perpetually overflowing
with saliva.
It touched mine.”
(Sones 2001, 41)
The above free-verse poem is just one excerpt of a book of free-verse poems by Sonya Sones in the novel What My Mother Doesn’t Know. The main character is Sophie, and the reader gets to experience her (almost 15 year old) world and all the highs and lows of being that age. The novel is written in a free-verse confessional (or diary) style format. Sophie tells the reader about everything in her life—her boyfriends, her break-ups, her best friends (Grace and Rachel), her tumultuous relationship with her mother who likes to escape life into the world of soaps, and her distant and often absentee father.
This is a fun book to read and girls ages 12 on up will enjoy it. As evidenced in the excerpt above, the poetry is engaging, and Sophie’s meanderings will appeal to a teen girl audience. The poems are strung together in a cohesive narrative, and Sones does a good job of keeping the reader hooked. The character of Sophie is realistic and depicts relatable situations for a young teen audience. For example, after dating Dylan for awhile, Sophie goes from being totally in love with him and thinking of only him to unexplainably not being able to stand him. This is chronicled in the poem “I Don’t Get It,” where Sophie thinks the following:
“I used to think it was so cute
the way Dylan’s sneakers always
squeaked when he walked.
I liked teasing him about them.
Called them his squeakers.
Loved being able to hear
him coming a mile away…
…But now when I hear those
noisy Nikes of his,
I feel like
I want to scream.
I want to stomp on his toes.
I want to trip him up and run away.
I just don’t get it.”
(Sones 2001, 83)
Ahh…the fickleness of young love is portrayed so well through the character of Sophie. An October 2001 review in Publishers Weekly says this of What My Mother Doesn’t Know: “…Sophie’s honest and earthy story feels destined to captivate a young female audience, avid and reluctant readers alike.” I think that is the key of success in this Sones’ novel: the writing is real and true to a teenage girl’s life and thoughts. Sones is able to remember what it was like being a teen, and she is able to skillfully tap back into those feelings and experiences. I will end with this quote by the School Library Journal (Oct. 2001) about this book: “Sones’s poems are glimpses through a peep-hole many teens may be peering through for the first time, unaware that others are seeing virtually the same new, scary, unfamiliar things…” I highly recommend this book of poetry. However, this book has been restricted and censored in some places (American Libraries Jun/July 2007). Parents have objected to some of the scenes in the book, such as in the poem “Ice Capades” when Sophie presses her bare breasts up against a cold window. This book reviewer is of the opinion that anyone censoring this book must have only read that poem and one or two others and has not read the book as a whole because the book is quite innocuous and funny. Due to the past controversy about this book, I would only suggest it be used for independent reading and not formally studied in the classroom.
Book Review Quotes:
School Library Journal (Oct. 2001):
- “Sones is a bright, perceptive writer who digs deeply into her protagonist’s soul.”
Publishers Weekly (Oct. 2001):
- “Drawing on the recognizable cadences of teenage speech, Sones … poignantly captures the tingle and heartache of being young and boy-crazy.”
Book Cover Art from Barnes&Noble.com:
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