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 clichéd, "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. (Oct.)
Details
Reviewed on: 10/15/2001
Genre: Children's
Compact Disc - 2 pages - 978-1-4233-6571-6
Compact Disc - 978-1-4805-1915-2
MP3 CD - 978-1-4558-5130-0
MP3 CD - 978-1-4233-6573-0
MP3 CD - 978-1-5366-2692-6
MP3 CD - 978-1-4805-1916-9
Open Ebook - 272 pages - 978-1-4391-1518-3
Paperback - 272 pages - 978-0-689-87114-6
Pre-Recorded Audio Player - 978-1-4418-0396-2
Prebound-Glued - 259 pages - 978-0-7569-4268-7
