my favorite part of this book is the way it is written in verse. it makes the book way more bearable to tackle and made poetry seem easier to understand and write. the verses were all different lengths, but flowed together nicely. the writer was perfect at finding a good place to stop the verses so that they weren't awkward or uncomfortable pauses.

I really don't like verse-style books. I think the writing is lazy and flat. There is no intimacy in the character development, and the story seems choppy. Books like this remind me too much of grading papers and writing over and over again, "more" or "explain" or "detail needed to be effective." ( )

Sophie expresses in verse her feelings and day to day experiences as a ninth grader.

This an authentic book on the teen experience written completely in verse. This book took me back to my high school days. Fun times with friends, falling in and out of love, fear of judgement by peers, parents who fight, and so on. You won't want to put this book down. ( )

I love books written in poems. It makes it fun and easy to read. I whipped through this book in no time. I liked it.

I had no idea there was a sequel though. I will have to go find it. ( )

This book is simply
One of the best
Novels I've read
It is just great
So wonderful, so amazing
And so perfect
That it has
Inspired me to
Write this review in verse
I think I am
Getting the hang of it
This book, though
It's so short
It took me
Two days
To read
And would have
Taken me longer
Except that
I was reading
Two other books
And now I
Want to read the
Next book
In this series
Because clearly
Miss/Mrs. Sonya Somes
Is a very talented writer
And also
Might I add
I would love
To read more
Novels in verse
Maybe even write some ( )

Summary:
This is a book of free verse poems written from the perspective of a girl named Sophie, who is in the ninth grade. These poems outline her love life, her family, and her friendships. She talks about Lou, her ex-boyfriend who dumped her at the end of eighth grade. She was devastated until she met Dylan, and they immediately felt a physical attraction to one another. They were totally infatuated with each other. Sophie talks about her best friends, Grace and Rachel, and how she doesn't mind being an only child because she has best friends that feel like family. She also talks about a boy in her art class, Murphy, who gets made fun of by everyone because he's geeky and clumsy, but she can't help but fantasize about kissing him. Sophie's mom watches soap operas all day long, and her father is rarely, if ever, affectionate with either of them. Sophie thinks about how she wishes her parents would pay more attention to her, or at least stop fighting so much. Sophie finds solace in her passionate relationship with Dylan. One day at the mall, Sophie and Dylan run into his ex-girlfriend, and Sophie becomes jealous when she feels like they're reconnecting. Afterwards, Dylan manages to say the perfect thing to comfort her. One day while walking home with her best friends, who are complaining about how starved for romantic attention they are, Sophie is distracted when she sees Murphy walking, and she longs to be close to him. She decides not to tell her friends how she feels, because she doesn't think they'll understand. Sophie talks about her changing body, and her mother's failure to have "the talk" with her. Sophie and Dylan get in their first fight when he cuts his hair and she doesn't like it. After not speaking for a few days, he shows up at her house and they make up. She draws a portrait of Dylan, but is disappointed when he's not overly impressed with it. One day in art class, the teacher makes them pair up with a partner. Sophie decides to work with Murphy, because she knows no one else will. Sophie meets Dylan's parents for the first time, and realizes that her being Jewish doesn't exactly sit well with his antisemitic parents. She begins to realize how little she and Dylan have in common. The passion in her relationship with Dylan begins to die out. She strikes up an online relationship with a boy named Chaz, and feels guilty because she may be cheating on Dylan. Dylan tells her he loves her, but she doesn't say it back, and instead thinks of Murphy. Her relationship with Chaz is becoming more important to her than her relationship with Dylan, so she breaks up with him. One night while chatting with Chaz, he says something very perverted, so she deletes him and changes her email address. At a halloween dance, Sophie dances with someone in a mask, and she instantly feels a connection with him and can't stop thinking about him. For weeks after, she searches the faces of every boy in school, trying to figure out which one could have been the boy with the mask. When all her friends go on vacation over winter break, Sophie takes herself for a day trip around town, and goes to an art museum. She runs into Murphy, and they strike up a conversation. Murphy and Sophie both have the same favorite painting. Sophie asks him to have lunch with her. They have a great time, and she agrees to see him again. She decides not to tell her friends about her date with Murphy. She feels conflicted, because she likes him, but doesn't want to like him. She tells him she just wants to be friends, and he's fine with it. They start hanging out more, and she realizes how much she enjoys spending time with him and how much they have in common. She meets his parents, and is relieved to find out that his mother is Jewish also. Later that night, he grabs her to dance with him, and she realizes that Murphy is the boy in the mask. When his mother calls him by his first name, Sophie remembers that Murphy's name is actual Robin, and promises to call him that from now on. They start dating, and soon they tell each other I love you. Sophie decides to tell her best friends about Robin on New Years Eve, but backs out at the last minute. Robin finds her crying about it, and says he understands if they can't be together. When school gets back from break, however, Sophie walks into the cafeteria and decides to sit with Robin. The novel ends with her feeling proud.

Personal Reaction:
I loved this book when I read it as an older child. It really fostered a love for poetry for me as well.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. Since Sophie's love for art was such a big theme, pair it with art lessons or visit a museum.
2. Write a journal entry about unlikely friends and why you shouldn't judge a book by its cover
3. Write a reflection on why Sophie's Jewish heritage was so important to her and why Dylan's parents' comments and his reaction upset her so much. ( )

I would recommend this to all of my 8th grade girls. Just inappropriate enough to seem like an authentic voice, but safe enough for me to put in their hands, too. ( )

What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones is the story of Sophie, a high school freshman who is boy-crazy, funny, silly, rebellious, and brave, depending on the day. To call Sophie fickle would be a disservice to her. It is more that she is a teen character who is still trying to figure herself out, a process that requires her to be flexible in her beliefs about herself and those around her. The book focuses on Sophie’s relationships with her mother, best friends, and the various boys who leave and enter her life. The novel is written in verse, told from Sophie’s first person perspective. This method of storytelling works well in helping give Sophie a strong voice and develop her characterization. For teens who enjoy narrative poems, or reluctant readers who may be impatient with prose texts, What My Mother Doesn’t Know might be a good selection.

5P, 3Q

3Q, 4P

This was a very quick read because it is in verse form. The book follows Sophie Stein, a 14 year old girl who is discovering her sexuality. She falls in and out of love with several boys, but finds herself inexplicably attracted to one boy she never would have thought she'd fall for. I like that Ms. Sones includes the author as part of her verse for many of the poems, so it flows well when read aloud. I also appreciated her creativity with the shape and language of some of the verse, particularly "I Wish" (p. 66).
I gave it a 3Q because it is an ok story; it is not particularly compelling or deep, but it is a story I believe many teenage girls could relate to. It is not a book I have seen a lot of publicity for, but I think introducing the book to teens would be enough to get them to read it. For this reason, I gave it the 4P rating.

I wasn't sure if I'd like this book since it's written entirely in verse, but I couldn't put it down! And, when it ended, I wished it hadn't. :) ( )

What My Mother Doesn't Know is a verse novel, narrated by 14-year-old Sophie. She tells us her story of that particular time in her life; she meets boys and has boyfriends, she has a tumultuous relationship with her mother and an almost nonexistent one with her father, and has two very close best friends.

The poetry is lovely, though at times I didn't see how the free verse helped move the story forward. It worked much of the time, with the line breaks being just perfect, but there were points when it felt like this part of the story had to be told as a poem since the rest was—it filled in information we needed to know, but the free verse seemed unnecessary. Some of the poems had rhyme schemes, which was nice and different to see, and one had a shape to the words. I always like when poets to play with form like that.

Sophie deals with a lot during this half year in her life. She has one boyfriend, meets another (sort of), and then (possibly) another. But it's not like she's boy crazy—it all seems very natural and normal. Plus Sones isn't afraid to talk about things like sexual desire (not sex, at least in this book), which might be why she's been banned so often, even if the situations in the book are pretty tame.

I did enjoy the bits with Sophie and her mother. I got just as angry at her mother as she did, and I wish I could have jumped into the story to help them. But yet, her mother was very human and showed multiple sides that made it impossible for me to hate her. I'm glad we got to see this relationship develop a little.

This was an honest look at the life of a girl blooming into maturity and discovering all the sides of love—the love between a mother and child, between friends, and between a girl and a boy. What My Mother Doesn't Know is a sweet coming-of-age story as well as a quick read.

Disclosure: I got this book (with the pretty new cover) at my local library. ( )

What really struck a chord with me in this book is that it’s a free-verse novel. I feel that Sones’ decision to write this novel in verse instead of prose makes it stand out from other young adult novels that might deal with similar characters and situations.

Because of the nature of poetry, there was a certain lack of depth to the story. With that in mind, there was also a much deeper depth to the story than what could be found just through reading this as if it were prose. The poems that make up What My Mother Doesn’t Know range in what they convey. Some are a full scene in Sophie’s day. Others create a full scene with a series of poems, where each might be a bit shorter and focus on one thought. Weaved together in a mixture of lengths and subjects, they create a beautiful patchwork view into who Sophie’s character is.

I really enjoyed the voice in this books as well. Sophie is a 15-year-old girl who is trying to sort out her heart, deal with an abnormal home-life and even touches on the prejudices of her being Jewish. While I’m not, nor have I ever been, a 15-year-old girl, I found her believable and was able to sympathize with her. At times I wanted to reach into the book and give her a good slap, but she’s learning how to go through life and to sort things out for herself.

I’m happy that I went along on this little journey with Sophie figuring out what love is, who she really is, and ultimately a journey about growing up for a teen who could represent many teens in one way or another. ( )

My VOYA ratings: 5Q,4P
This is a lovely tale of love. It is the fractured love of child and parent, the unrequited love of youth, the love of self, and the love of life. Sophie navigates her entrance into high school, and the world of boys, as she learns to claim her identity and be true to herself. The style is easy to read and pulls you in.
Quote:
"How can I study when my blood is pumping so loud that I can't hear my own thoughts? How can I read when all the words keep swirling around on the page?" (18)

5Q, 4P - my ratings

Charming, honest, and entirely relatable. This seems like a book that teens would want to read over and over. ( )

"What My Mother Doesn't Know" is about Sophie, a young woman who details her first few "loves." First there is Lou, her first boyfriend, whom she doesn't talk about much (only mentioning him when he broke up with her in the prior year). Then there is Dylan, who is probably her first "real love," but things go downhill with him. Then there is Chaz, an online creep whom Sophie (thankfully) never meets in person. Finally, there's the "masked man" at the Halloween dance. Written in free verse, the book is a very quick read (I was done with it in less than an hour) and engaging, although easy to just skim through instead of appreciating each separate poem. ( )

Sophie is suffering from a freshman-year boy crisis--falling out of love with one boy and in love with another, a masked boy at the Halloween dance who's probably handsome and mysterious and dashing, and almost certainly not the awkward boy who's become the butt of most of the class jokes...right?

There's a very brief "fling" with an online boy who (predictably) turns out to be a creeper, but there was never any actual danger for Sophie. I did appreciate the way that she falls for Murphy--she gets to know him and THEN falls for him, rather than her previous boyfriend, with whom things happened in the opposite order and didn't work out so well.

The verse novel moves quickly and is an engaging light read, but it isn't as memorable as some of Sones' other books, especially "Stop Pretending." ( )

Characters: Sophie, Rachel, Grace, Robin (Murphy)

Setting: High school in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Theme: Friendship, love (at first dance), don't judge a book by its cover, internet safety, controlling private information, family (mother daughter relationship)

Summary: Sophie and her best friends, Rachel and Grace, are high school freshmen who share common ground: love for boys. Sophie dates Dylan, but things do not work out like in a Hollywood movie. She is first distanced from him when she becomes attracted to the boy she met online who turns out to have an unacceptably perverted mind. When she notices that she has physically outgrown Dylan, she knows it is over with him. But her Hollywood movie style romance has rekindled when she dances with a mysterious masked man at a dance night. She later finds out that he is Robin called by Murphy by everyone at school, the word used as a substitute for jerk. But it does not stop her from helplessly falling in love with who he really is: A guy with a beautiful smile, a mesmerizing gleam in the eyes, and a big fat warm heart. The book ends with Sophie making a decision of dating him in public despite the fear that she will be just as much as a laughingstock and a loner as he is.

Review: I will definitely have a hard time searching for a cuter high school romance novel than "What My Mother Doesn't know." I read the part about Sophie stating that she hates her mom, but she hates herself even more for hating her mom, multiple times; she spoke for all the daughters in the world. I loved how Sophie was not swayed by others' thoughts and always had a place in her heart for Robin. I hope that as teenagers read this novel, they take a second look at Robins at their school and really "see" them, not just look at them. Another thing I loved was the friendship the girls had. Often, girls are notorious for abandoning their friendship for love and crawling back to their friends once the love life is over. The friendship the girls had was enviable and truthful. Also, the book teaches them about the dangers and pitfalls of dating guys online.

Curriculum ties: Technology (internet safety, digital citizenship), Health (decision making, passing judgments, school bullying), art (flip drawing, art titles introduced in the book) ( )

This is a quick, beautifully written story about a fourteen-year-old girl who experiences life, love, and heartbreak in the midst of growing up. This coming of age story very much gets at the heart of many issues that adolescent girls face, and deals with them in a frank, but poetic manner. As the main character, Sohpie, grapples with becoming an adult and making mature decisions, she makes a few mistakes along the way, which are dealt with through honest reflection. This book would be great for reluctant readers in a middle school classroom, or for those who want an "easy" read. ( )

I started one of Sones’ books in the past and didn’t even bother finishing it, but I’ve been hearing so many good things about her lately that I decided to give her another shot.

This time I picked up a copy of What My Mother Doesn’t Know and once again I was disappointed. I wouldn’t have even bothered finishing if it weren’t for the fact that I was trapped at work for seven more hours with no other source of entertainment.

Contrary to the blurb on the back of the book, Sophie IS boy crazy! She goes through three different guys in this short book, and whenever she’s not with one she’s dreaming about one. Heck, even when she has a boyfriend she’s dreaming of a different guy! I disliked Sophie from the very beginning, I found her immature, shallow and annoying. Her entire brain was about making out with boys and nothing more.

I didn’t feel like this book had a plot line at all. It basically just followed Sophie around during her dating escapades. At one point during the story Sophie considers breaking up with her “then” boyfriend rather than telling her best friends who he was because she was afraid they’d make fun of her. This just proved to me how shallow she really was; if you can’t even tell your so called “best friends” who you’re dating for fear they’ll make fun of you instead of be happy for you, then maybe they’re not really true friends.

While reading at work my co-worker looked over at me and said wow, you’re really not liking that book are you? Apparently I had quite the grimace on my face. It was while I was reading an awkward passage about girls popping each other’s zits at a sleepover (GROSS!) There were a lot of awkward passages like this scattered throughout the story.

Overall, I was unable to understand people’s interest in Sones’ books and did not find it worth my time. I won’t be reading anything more from this author. ( )

What My Mother Doesn't Know is written as free form poetry about a young girl and her first 3 relationships. She struggles to decide what is important to her, what her friends think or how she feels about the young men. She starts out going for popular guys her friends approve of, but find that the nerdy Murphy might be the one she really has feelings for. She gets to explore these feelings when her friends go on vacation leaving her to decide without their influence.

I love the girl her boyfriend sounded like a jerk though owell though there is a jerk in eevery thing ( )

What my Mother doesn't know by Sonya Sones
Reviewed by Moirae the fates book reviews.
My name is Sophie.
This book is about me.
It tells
the heart-stoppingly riveting story
of my first love.
And also of my second.
And, okay, my third love too.

It's not that I'm boy crazy.
It's just that even though
I'm almost fifteen
it's like
my mind
and my body
and my heart
just don't seem to be able to agree
on anything. (Synopsis provided by goodreads)

For me this book was simply okay. After learning it was on the banned/challenge book list like many people my interest was peaked. The reasoning for the ban is all due to one line in the book. That's it.

Books told in verse are quick reads and if you have to like or at least not mind it to read this one.
I don't mind if a book is told in verse or not. I liked this one enough I just wish we knew a little more about who Sophie is not who her latest boyfriend was.

It was a fast read and the book was cute enough. My favorite part was the dance, that the most fun to read. I'd say give this one a try.

* Paperback: 259 pages
* Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (February 1, 2003)
* ISBN-10: 0689855532
* Author: Sonya Sones
* Cover art: I like it
* Overall rating: *** out of 5 stars
* Obtained: My personal book shelf ( )

It's hard to imagine why this book would be on a banned book list. The teen voice rings true .The free verse format is very effective. You laugh and cry along with Sophie. Well worth the read. ( )

Illustrated Review ( )