What My Mother Doesn't Know (Module 3)

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sones, Sonya. 2001. What My Mother Doesn’t Know. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0689841140

2. PLOT SUMMARY
This teen poetry collection reads more like a novel, with its face-paced plot following the twists and turns of a young teen’s heart. Sophie, the main character, shares through poetry her search for the right boyfriend moving from one mistake to another. What My Mother Doesn’t Know also touches on the topics of being Jewish, budding sexuality, marriage (her parent's), mother-daughter relations, and best friends.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Sones’s free verse poetry flows naturally and keeps the pages turning quickly. The use of poetry for this teen novel encourages the deep, intense emotions of being a teenager, without feeling overdone. The emotional connection is the most impressive part of this book because it feels so true to the ups and downs of being a teenager: one minute totally high and the next minute totally devastated. We see Sophie in love and out of love, cheating, lying to her best friends, working through a rocky relationship with her mother, and worried about her reputation. This book is an honest and open work on the embarrassing explorations of teenager-dom.

The poetry is carefully crafted, but it doesn’t lose the teenager’s natural speech patterns for its use of literary devices. When considering breaking up with Dylan, Sophie is thinking how she may have outgrown him when Sones throws in a simile that his hands are “like the hands of a little boy” (“Good night”). She personifies a Christmas tree, “So tall and full, / with all its arms / swooping up at the tips / as if to say, ‘Ta da!’” (“It’s a Beautiful Tree”). When Sophie is caught up in kissing a new boy, she finds her metaphor in hot chocolate: “warming us better / than any cup of steaming cocoa ever could” (“Winter Kiss”). Sones has a gift of writing beautiful poetry that still flows as if it could come straight out of a teenager’s mouth. The poems are also balanced with lists, emails, and chats to add to the reality of a teenager’s life.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

• Booklist starred review: “The poetry is never pretentious or difficult; on the contrary, the very short, sometimes rhythmic lines make each page fly. Sophie's voice is colloquial and intimate, and the discoveries she makes are beyond formula, even while they are as sweetly romantic as popular song. A natural for reluctant readers, this will also attract young people who love to read.”
• Publishers Weekly starred review: “Drawing on the recognizable cadence of teenage speech, the author poignantly captures the tingle and heartache of being young and boy-crazy. She weaves separate free verse poems into a fluid and coherent narrative with a satisfying ending.”
• School Library Journal review: “Sones's book makes these often-difficult years a little more livable by making them real, normal, and OK.”

5. CONNECTIONS

• Sonya Sones has a fascinating website with great information about her books, her poetry, and her life. For those students who really want to get to know her more, don’t miss the video tour of her writing space: http://www.sonyasones.com/gallery/gallery002.html
• The sequel to What My Mother Doesn’t Know gives us the same quick paced poetry novel, but from the perspective of a boy (Robin Murphy). What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know pairs nicely with this first novel, yet the first one doesn’t have to be read to understand its sequel. Use What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know to interest male reluctant readers or those that would like a the novel in verse with a male protagonist voice.
• Other novels in verse:

Glenn, Mel. Who Killed Mr. Chippendale?: A Mystery in Poems. ISBN: 9780525675303


Herrara, Juan Felipe. CrashBoomLove. ISBN: 9780826321138


Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust. ISBN: 9780590371254

Rylant, Cynthia. God Went to Beauty School. ISBN: 9780060094331