Make Lemonade, by Virginia Euwer Wolff

The lemony yellow and summery blue on the cover of this novel belie the depressed surroundings and tough circumstances faced by Wolff’s characters. Once you read the first few pages, you quickly remember that lemons, despite being the color of sunshine, are indeed sour.

In fifth grade, LaVaughn asks her single mother if she can go to college someday. After that, LaVaughn says, “COLLEGE is in my house,/ and you have to walk around it in the rooms/ like furniture.” LaVaughn’s mother will not let the dream of college die, even though they barely have enough money for food and their small apartment. When LaVaughn responds to a help-wanted ad for a babysitter, she sees a prime opportunity to start saving for her future. She quickly falls in love with baby Jilly and toddler Jeremy, and doesn’t mind helping their seventeen-year-old mother, Jolly, who is even poorer than LaVaughn and her own mother. Ultimately, LaVaughn must choose between helping herself rise out of poverty or sacrificing her own success to help Jolly, Jilly, and Jeremy, who have become her second family. Although LaVaughn is four years younger than Jolly, LaVaughn quickly exceeds the young mother in maturity and responsibility, making her quite the heroine in the reader’s eyes.

While the story line itself is amazingly powerful, it is also Wolff’s writing that sets this book apart. Imagine Shakespeare as a teen girl living in the projects in the 21^st century and you will get a taste of Make Lemonade. The beautiful but raw blank verse compliments the action within the story, making this ideal for both literary geeks and those who avoid anything referred to as a novel. An introductory page lists all of the awards that Make Lemonade has won. Read one chapter and you’ll have no doubt why this book is a winner.

Please click on the screen below to view a trailer for Make Lemonade:



Wolff, V.E. (1993). Make lemonade. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 978-0-8050-8070-4.