An award-winning novel about growing up and making choices
Viginia Euwer Wolff's groundbreaking novel, written in free verse, tells the story of fourteen-year-old LaVaughn, who is determined to go to collegeshe just needs the money to get there. When she answers a babysitting ad, LaVaughn meets Jolly, a seventeen-year-old single mother with two kids by different fathers. As she helps Jolly make lemonade out of the lemons her life has given her, LaVaughn learns some lessons outside the classroom.
* Radiant with hope. Publisher's Weekly, starred review
Powerfully moving. Kirkus Reviews, pointer
Virginia Euwer Wolffis an accomplished violinist and former elementary school and high school English teacher. Her first book for young readers,Probably Still Nick Swansen, was published in 1988 and won both the International Reading Association Award and the PEN-West Book Award. Since then she has written several more critically acclaimed young adult novels, earning more honors, including the National Book Award forTrue Believer, as well as the Golden Kite Award for Fiction and the Jane Addams Book Award for Children's Books that Build Peace. Her books includeThe Mozart Season, This Full HouseandBat 6.She lives in Oregon.