What My Mother Doesn't Know

Bibliography

Sones, Sonya. What My Mother Doesn't Know. 2001. New York, NY: ISBN # 0-689-84114-0

Critical Analysis

The idea of an entire novel written in poetry form might sound a bit daunting for some readers but Sonya Sones' What My Mother Doesn't Know is the book to change young adults' minds about poetry. Written in free verse, Sones has the reader hanging on to every word through the humorous main character Sophie. Sophie's thoughts, views, and daily occurrences  are detailed through short one to two page poems making the poetry easy to digest. 

In every poem Sophie's voice comes through crystal clear. Girls of all ages will be able to relate to her insecurities, daydreams and relationship woes. Sone explores all types of relationships that are important to adolescent girls in the book. Sophie breaks up with one boyfriend to date Dylan, whose smile is almost like "a religious experience" to her. As so often young love does, Sophie and Dylan's relationship goes from hot and heavy to nearly nonexistent and the time comes for them both to move on, and Sophie does, to someone that surprises herself and the reader alike. Beyond the boyfriend relationships, Sones also emphasizes the bond between Sophie and her two best friends, Rachel and Grace, showing just how important a girl's friends can be. 

Interestingly Sophie's relationship with her mother is probably the most indirectly developed relationship in the book. Sophie's mother seems to spend most of her time watching TV and making Sophie feel the type of guilt that only mothers know how to make you feel, yet there is something charming about their relationship. As distant as they are, when Sophie really needs someone to talk to, her mother is there. 

The simplistic beauty of the poetry in What My Mother Doesn't Know makes it a great read for grades 6 and up. Girls will especially enjoy the book because of the subject matter. Another perk to suggesting the book to young readers is that Sone describes Sophie's feelings and actions in the book from an adolescent girl's point of view so convincingly that parent's don't have to worry about young readers stumbling on more adult perspectives on relationships that they may not be ready to handle yet.

Book Group Ideas

Have readers go through the book and find a poem with a humorous tone, a poem where Sophie feels guilty, a poem where Sophie is worried and a poem where Sophie is happy. Discuss the differences between the poems. What elements in the poem make it come across funny? Guilty? Worried? Happy? What word choices set the tone of the poem? Encourage them to try and change a few words in the poem to see if it changes the tone.

External Assessments

"*Starred Review* Drawing on the recognizable cadences of teenage speech, Sones (Stop Pretending) poignantly captures the tingle and heartache of being young and boy-crazy. The author keenly portrays ninth-grader Sophie's trajectory of lusty crushes and disillusionment whether she is gazing at Dylan's "smoldery dark eyes" or dancing with a mystery man to music that "is slow/ and/ saxophony." Best friends Rachel and Grace provide anchoring friendships for Sophie as she navigates her home life as an only child with a distant father and a soap opera-devotee mother whose "shrieking whips around inside me/ like a tornado." Some images of adolescent changes carry a more contemporary cachet, "I got my period I prefer/ to think of it as/ rebooting my ovarian operating system," others are consciously clich‚d, "my molehills/ have turned into mountains/ overnight" this just makes Sophie seem that much more familiar. With its separate free verse poems woven into a fluid and coherent narrative with a satisfying ending, Sophie's honest and earthy story feels destined to captivate a young female audience, avid and reluctant readers alike. Ages 12-up."- Publishers Weekly

"*Starred Review* Gr. 6-10. In a fast, funny, touching book, Sones uses the same simple, first-person poetic narrative she used in Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy(1999), but this story isn't about family anguish; it's about the joy and surprise of falling in love. Sophie, 14, thinks she has a crush on handsome Dylan, but she discovers that her most passionate feelings are for someone totally unexpected, a boy who makes her laugh and shows her how to look at the world. And when they kiss, every cell in her body is on fire. Meanwhile, she fights with her mom--who fights with Sophie's dad--and she refuses to wear a pink flowered dress to the school dance, secretly changing into a slinky black outfit with the help of her girlfriends. Their girl talk is hilarious and irreverent in the style of Naylor's Alice books. 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."- Hazel Rochman, School Library Journal