Review: Make Lemonade

Make Lemonade
Author: Virginia Euwer Wolff
Release Date: May 15, 1993
Publisher: Henry Holt
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Pages: 200
Format: paperback, bought

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Synopsis:

Jolly is seventeen. She can’t really spell. She doesn’t have much of a job. And she has two little kids from two different, absent fathers.

Jolly knows she can’t cope with Jilly and Jeremy all by herself. So she posts a notice on the school bulletin board: BABYSITTER NEEDED BAD. No one replies but Verna LaVaughn, who’s only fourteen. How much help can she be?

For a while, Jolly, Jilly, Jeremy, and LaVaughn are an extraordinary family. The LaVaughn takes the first steps toward building her own future, and Jolly begins the long, slow process of turning the lemons of her life into lemonade.

My Review:

This is a story that is written in free verse. It follows LaVaughn’s life throughout the story but has a big emphasis on Jolly and her two kids Jeremy and Jilly. Jeremy isn’t quite 3 yet and Jilly is just old enough to start crawling.

I pulled this book from my TBR book jar this week and since I saw it was shorter I decided to go ahead and read it. It is a very fast read, it took me just a couple hours to finish the whole thing.

On the back of the book it says that it is “Radiant with hope.” and “Powerfully moving.” I will agree with this somewhat. It was moving towards the end, but to me it was rather boring and I was hoping it would get better but it didn’t really. LaVaughn is saving up for college, and trust me, you hear about it throughout the whole book that she needs money for college. She is a brat when it comes to her money and I was annoyed with her through the whole book.

Jolly, I felt sorry for. She didn’t want to apply for welfare out of fear of getting her children taken away. She was doing all she could just to make sure they could eat. I know this is out there, all over the place for many single parents and it hit a spot in my heart. I have a degree in Early Childhood Education and I’ve been so afraid to go back into it because I’m afraid of failing at writing lesson plans. Yes, I know, stupid excuse. But after reading this book I will say I have decided to put that aside and go back into that field of work once I find the right place for me.

The grammar in it was also horrible. I know the author tried to make the book that way to show the poor education, but at times it was hard to even understand what she was trying to say. I would have to re-read parts a few times just to try to understand and sometimes I was never able to.

Apart of all this, I was glad I read it. It did put a jump into my step to get my own life moving. I liked learning about the characters and I wanted to go help babysit Jeremy and Jilly so bad. I feel like I could have helped them so much. Jolly even gets her act together and tries to work on her life and I loved that part of it. She knew she kept getting lemons in her life but towards the end, she learned to add some sugar to those lemons and make lemonade.

It was Okay.