True Believer

I liked this book a lot. It kept me reading, I didn't ever want to put it down. It will keep you in suspense throughout the whole book. Verna LaVaughn was a fifteen year old girl. She lives with her mother in a dirty little apartment in the slums of a city. They can't afford very many things. LaVaughn's mother works most of the day to support LaVaughn. She leaves in the morning and doesn't return home until late at night. They have a tough life, but they manage to get through it with their head held high. When LaVaughn's childhood friend, Jody, moves back into the apartment building everything changes. Jody and LaVaughn find out that they have the same dream, to go to college. They find out that they have a lot in common and become very good friends all over again. Meanwhile, LaVaughn is already losing her two best friends, Annie and Myrtle. Then when LaVaughn's mother comes home with a new friend from work, Lester, everything only gets worse. This was the best book I have read in a very long time. It almost seemed real!

No one is a faster detector of false prose than a young person, and no one less patient with anything that doesn't strike him or her as true. Young adult and children's literature has always had to be written with an ear for language. But actually writing books in free verse? Writing entire novels as extended narrative poetry? Well, yes. Virginia Euwer Wolff does just that in True Believer, which won the 2001 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.The sequel to Make Lemonade, True Believer is strong enough to stand alone. It is the story of LaVaughn's 15th year, her struggle to stay focused on getting to college despite the heartbreak she sees around her and the distraction of her own shifting relationships. Her mother has taken on more responsibilities at work; her two best friends have joined "Cross Your Legs for Jesus," and not even having seen the devastation that an unplanned pregnancy can wreak on a teen's life can stop her from thinking about one special young man.The verse works better as a narrative device than as poetry. (A random example: "Their adults congratulated them/and put out a sign-up clipboard for joining/but I didn't write my name." p. 132) But LaVaughn has such integrity and the odds are so stacked against her that within the first 30 pages I forgot about the unusual format. Whether the verse works well as poetry or not becomes a moot point as LaVaughn's thoughts form an authentic and unforgettable story.

This is a story about growing up in poverty and the challenges of peer pressure, boys, school, gangs, drugs and a world that is not always kind. Many of those pressures appear in any girl's life, but it becomes even more challenging when financial resources are virtually non-existent, and the social stigma of poverty and a poor neighbourhood environment are major obstacles to overcome. The character of La Vaughn is strong, vivid and dramatically portrayed. The message given in this book is to hold on to your dreams, work hard, get an eduation, believe in yourself and realize that one is only limited in attaining their goals by self-imposed restrictions. It may take time to achieve those goals, but nothing is impossible. This book is beautifully written and highly recommended reading for any girl who feels there may be a little of La Vaughn living somewhere deep inside her.

I didn't much care for "Make Lemonade", but "True Believer" is one heck of a great read! I could not put it down! There is just so much about this book that reads true-to-life, it's hard for me to site examples. LaVaughn is now a real person to me, a complex young woman struggling to find herself in a very confusing time and place. Her waxing and waning relationship with her two best friends, and her (hopeful) beginning of romance with Jody, the handsome boy-next-door are perfectly tragic-comedic! And I just love the name of the religious group LaVaughn's friends join to maintain their virginity---Cross Your Legs for Jesus. Such warmth and humor and heartbreakingly realistic writing make this a book teens and young adults can easily relate to. And congratulations to Wolff for winning the National Book Award---this book deserves the honor.