This Full House

Parents involved and parents absent. Accidental pregnancies and teenage dreams. Mothers and babies; misery and hope. In the final book of Virginia Euwer Wolff's MAKE LEMONADE trilogy, with LaVaughn now at the age of 17, Dr. Moore becomes a pivotal figure in her life, impacting LaVaughn's quest to make it into college and affecting her life outside of school which continues to feature LaVaughn's widowed mom, and Jolly, the teen mother for whom LaVaughn has been babysitting since the first book in the trilogy, MAKE LEMONADE (1993). "The only thing that separates me from Jolly-- the only thing-- is my mom. She did not throw me away." THIS FULL HOUSE is a story of children and their parents -- both present and absent -- that caused me to be thinking about my own parents. There are LaVaughn and her mom; Jolly with the now six-year-old Jeremy and four-year-old Jilly; LaVaughn's classmate and friend Annie who becomes pregnant and gives birth; and the trailblazing Dr. Moore, around whom rumors swirl about a long-ago lost child. LaVaughn's dedication to her goals of attending college and a future medical career lead to her applying for and being accepted into the two-afternoon-a-week WIMS [Women in Medical Science] program founded by Dr. Moore for women 16-20 years old. Thinking about the determination of LaVaughn to fulfill her dreams, and the struggle, decades earlier, of Dr. Moore to enter a realm dominated by men makes me, in turn, think of the award-winning piece of nonfiction that I have (in the wake of Hillary Clinton's near-success) been continually booktalking this fall. LET ME PLAY: the story of Title IX, the law that changed the future of girls in America, includes this factoid brought to light during the 1970 Congressional hearings that were so instrumental in achieving passage of the Title IX legislation: "Quotas at many medical and law schools limited females to just five or ten students out of every one hundred. Consequently, just 7 percent of the doctors in the United States at the end of the 1960s were women." It is true that today things are far better for women than they were during my childhood. My thrill over Hillary Clinton's near-success results from my memory of how bad things were for women in the Sixties. I well recall reading the daily paper back when there were separate job ads for women and men, with blatantly unequal pay being offered to women. That women continue to have to work harder than men to achieve the same goals, and that there still are instances of unequal pay for equal work, has me thinking about Jilly. Considering that MAKE LEMONADE was published in 1993, Jilly could easily have been a preschool-age contemporary of my own real-life, now-seventeen-year-old daughter. These young people approaching adulthood are the generation for whom Wolff writes and for whom Dr. Moore's struggle will be an eye-opening American history lesson and morality puzzle. "While I fold laundry I memorize things for school,

THIS FULL HOUSE is the conclusion to the MAKE LEMONADE trilogy by Virginia Euwer Wolff. It will be on store shelves in January of 2009. It has been fifteen years since the first book about LaVaughn and Jolly. Having just finished the Advanced Reader's Copy of THIS FULL HOUSE, I can say it was worth the wait. High school student LaVaughn and single mother Jolly first met in MAKE LEMONADE. LaVaughn reluctantly took on the job of babysitter to Jolly's two young children. Watching Jolly struggle as a single, teen mother makes LaVaughn realize the importance of getting an education and making something of herself. What followed was TRUE BELIEVER and even more experience watching and helping Jolly make ends meet for her little family. THIS FULL HOUSE provides a satisfying conclusion and a hopeful future for both LaVaughn and Jolly. An interest in science and medicine along with a determination to attend college gives LaVaughn the encouragement to apply for a program designed to give girls like her a unique opportunity. The program, WIMS - Women in Medical Science - is run by Dr. Moore. She has dedicated her life to medicine and wants to offer other girls the chance to thrive and succeed, as well. Every Tuesday and Wednesday, LaVaughn has the privilege of attending lectures and working in labs to study and learn the science that has always fascinated her. LaVaughn's life is filled with the WIMS classes, her own final high school classes, a job in the hospital laundry, watching Jolly's two kids while Jolly studies for her G.E.D., and juggling anything else that comes her way. With the encouragement of those around her, LaVaughn is beginning to think college might actually be in her future. However, the constant desire to help her friend Jolly find the answers to her mysterious past are about to possibly derail the future she has fought so hard to plan. LaVaughn thinks she might have found the long-missing mother Jolly so desperately needs and wants in her life. Those readers who have yet to discover this remarkable trilogy should stop by the library or bookstore and get their hands on a copy of MAKE LEMONADE. Meeting LaVaughn and Jolly in that first book will bring readers back until they reach the conclusion in THIS FULL HOUSE. It was definitely a story worth waiting for. Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"