Make Lemonade
By the Book Ladies: Caroline Dotson and Carol Jacobson

Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff is a cleverly told young adult novel of two young women facing tough life challenges and in the end, moving forward.

Jolly is a seventeen-year-old single mother with two children; Jeremy is three and Jilly is nine months old. Jolly meets LaVaughn while looking for a babysitter so she can take a job at a factory and work to support her children.

Wolff paints Jolly as a believable, even likeable character who, I believed, really was doing the best she could, but was handicapped by youth, inexperience, bad luck and less-than-informed choices.

LaVaughn, 14, is a good student and also being raised by a single mother. She wants to save money for college and takes the job babysitting for Jolly. Watching Jolly struggle to care for her children convinces LaVaughn that she doesn’t want to end up like Jolly.

LaVaughn is aghast at the way Jolly lives and sets out to clean up the kids, the apartment and even Jolly herself.

When Jolly unfairly looses her job in a case of sexual harassment, LaVaughn encourages Jolly to better her education through a “Moms Up” program at the high school.

This is a story of hope that both girls will have better lives. LaVaughn hopes she can get out of the poverty in her community, and Jolly hopes that she can provide a decent, good life for her children.

Life gave the girls lemons and they figured out a way to make lemonade.

This cleverly written book should be classic. It is a fabulous, up-lifting story that captivated me from the start. Wolff uses a subtle poetic form to tell the story and connect us to the main characters. I could understand both girls’ perspective and relate to LaVaughn’s concern for Jolly and her kids.

Through Wolff’s sparse language I could easily picture the life situation and Jeremy and Jilly’s behavior.

Interestingly, Wolff never tells the reader where the girls are living—it literally could be any city, and she never tells what race the girls are.

After discussing the book with a friend, I found out we had completely different views on the culture and the where-abouts of Jolly and La Vaughn. What a great discussion topic: what does race have to do with challenges?

This surely should become a must-read for young women as we read about hope and watch two people gain strength from the power of relationships.

The ending of this book moved me, leaving me satisfied and a little teary-eyed.

Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1993. ISBN: 0-8050-8070-8. $6.95.

The Book Ladies can be reached at 824-5343.