True Believer 真正的信徒
2002-10
Simon & Schuster Merchandise &
Virginia Euwer Wolff
264
LaVaughn is fifteen now, and she's still fiercely determined to
go to college. But that's the only thing she's sure about. Loyalty
to her father bubbles up as her mother grows closer to a new man.
The two girls she used to do everything with have chosen a path
LaVaughn wants no part of. And then there's Jody. LaVaughn can't
believe how gorgeous he is...or how confusing. He acts like he's in
love with her, but is he?
Virginia Euwer Wolff lives in Oregon City, Oregon and is
currently at work on a third and final book about LaVaughn. She is
also the author of three other books for young adults: Probably
Still Nick Swansen, The Mozart Season, and Bat 6.
Amazon.com Review At 15, LaVaughn already knows that life is hard and that getting ahead takes a strong mind and an even stronger will. Surrounded by poverty and violence, she strives every day not to be just another inner-city statistic: "My hope is strong like an athlete. Every morning when we walk through the metal detectors to get into school ... it is an important day of dues-paying so I can go to college and be out of here." Last year when she babysat for Jolly, a young unwed mother, she saw firsthand how an unplanned pregnancy can diminish options. So she ignores the boys, studies hard, and hopes it will all be enough to get her into college. Then Jody moves back into the neighborhood. Once LaVaughn's childhood friend, Jody is now "suddenly beautiful... He could be in movies the way the parts of his face go together." If LaVaughn's choices were difficult before Jody, now they're almost impossible. What LaVaughn doesn't know is that Jody has difficult decisions of his own to make--decisions that could turn her carefully ordered world upside down. The second novel in a proposed trilogy, True Believer picks up where the acclaimed Make Lemonade left off. Virginia Euwer Wolff's verse-prose is as sumptuous as ever, and her descriptions of LaVaughn's day-to-day life and feelings are sympathetic and achingly real. Readers will be eager to see where LaVaughn's choices take her in Wolff's next installment. (Ages 13 and older) --Jennifer Hubert From Publishers Weekly "Eight years after the publication of her groundbreaking Make Lemonade, Wolff surpasses herself with this sequel," said PW in our Best Books citation. "In delving into LaVaughn's life, the author unmasks the secret thoughts adolescents hold sacred and lets her readers know they are not alone." Ages 12-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library Journal Gr 6 Up-LaVaughn has matured since readers met her in Make Lemonade (Holt, 1993). She is now 15 and questions everything, from her faith, her slowly eroding friendship with Myrtle and Annie because of their religious beliefs, her sexuality, and her feelings for an old friend who has reentered her life and has secrets of his own. LaVaughn has one main goal-to go to college and escape the housing projects. Her strong relationship with her mother and the high morals and far-reaching academic goals that the woman has instilled in the teen inspire hope. Several teachers recognize promise in LaVaughn, and she is placed in an after-school program to improve her speech. She is also moved to an advanced biology class. Written in free verse, this first-person narrative is related in a conversational vernacular that tugs readers into the story. As LaVaughn progresses in her Grammar Build-Up class and recognizes the importance of proper speech, the language of the storyteller subtly changes. This uplifting story is a celebration of an educational system that doesn't let a promising student fall through the cracks. It shows that there is something attainable outside the projects, where drugs, gangs, and violence are a constant threat; gives hope to dream of a better life; and demonstrates one young woman's courage to work as hard as one must to achieve that dream.-Kit Vaughan, Midlothian Middle School, VACopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Booklist Gr. 7-12. "My heart was so stretching, like a room wanting company," LaVaughn says at the end of Make Lemonade (Booklist's 1993 Top of the List winner for Youth Fiction). In this equally powerful sequel, LaVaughn, now 15, challenges her heart's resilience again when she develops her first deep crush. Other things are going on as well. She drifts apart from her best friends Myrtle and Annie, who join a "Cross Your Legs for Jesus" club; her mother dates for the first time since LaVaughn's father died; and always there is the poverty and violence of the neighborhood, the pressure of school, and her unwavering goal to get to college. Her deepening intellectual excitement is an anchor, but LaVaughn struggles under the confusing new weight of her emotions, particularly when she sees her crush kiss another boy. As in Lemonade, LaVaughn tells her own story in heart-stopping stream-of-consciousness that reveals her convincing naivete and her blazing determination, intelligence, and growth. Yet the writing style still allows the supporting characters to shine. Transcendent, raw, and fiercely optimistic, the novel answers some of its own questions about overcoming adversity when, in the end, LaVaughn's strength and capacity to love surprise even herself. A natural for reader's theater, this will capture even reluctant readers. Gillian EngbergCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Review "The sequel to the highly acclaimed Make Lemonade, 'a book of exceptional quality... truly unputdownable' according to the Sunday Times. 'An astonishing piece of writing...the lyrical, funny narrative voice and spell-binding story pack a powerful punch.' Mail on Sunday 'Unmissable...the fresh, moving and extraordinarily funny story of an unlikely friendship...[it] speaks universal truths.' The Times" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
内容插图均很不错。都很喜欢。