LaVaughn is a girl with determination and a lifelong dream � to go to college and escape her inner city existence. She and her mother have single-mindedly ordered their lives to accomplish that goal. But now that she�s 15, things and people in her life have started to change. Her best friends, Myrtle and Annie, are growing away from her, and her mother is devoting more time to her gentleman friend and new job. When a childhood playmate moves back into the building, LaVaughn feels her comfortable life start to spin out of control.
When she first comes face to face with �perfect, handsome� Jody on the elevator, she is overwhelmed. Her heart �clunks� and beats �too loud for comfort,� and her brain is out of kilter. Totally smitten, she tries to convince herself that he is in love with her, too. She rebuffs her lab partner�s invitation to the "Food & Flashlight Formal," and instead asks Jody to be her date.
Although Jody has never indicated he feels anything more than friendship for LaVaughn, she has trouble letting go of her conviction that he is her �one true love.� It is only when she makes a discovery that is at once shocking and devastating, that she realizes the futility of her dreams: �I only noticed it was a boy. I stood ice-still and I saw their mouths go together and stay and I froze. The plate of cookies went straight onto the rug and my lifetime jumped upside down.�
The award-winning author tells LaVaughn�s story in a stream-of-consciousness, free verse style, which effectively captures the confused and erratic thought processes of adolescence. She does this using inner-city dialect and speech patterns, which give authenticity to the character and setting. The tenement setting is further established by LaVaughn�s observations: �Outside the wind is blowing so hard everybody is relieved just to be in the filthy elevator with all the bad words written on its walls.� (p. 149) Describing her apartment when she was born, LaVaughn observes that "it was not such a slum then.� (p. 140) She lists all the children she once knew who are �gone,� many of them to �violence and dumbness.� (p. 30)
The main characters in the book, LaVaughn and her mother, are well-developed and multi-faceted. LaVaughn reveals herself to the reader, with all her fragile vulnerability, through her thoughts and actions. �You get older and you are a whole mess of things, new thoughts, sorry feelings, big plans, enormous doubts, going along hoping and getting disappointed, over and over again . . .� (p. 3) The mother, a strong matriarchal figure, is deferentially and lovingly seen through the eyes of her daughter. Phrases like �My mom can really wear a dress� (p. 102) and �This is a mom who loved her man� (p. 103) show that LaVaughn has new appreciation for her mother as a woman, and not just a maternal authority figure.
Wolff provides comic relief by ingeniously integrating humor into subjects that are commonly a source of teen angst. One technique she uses is LaVaughn�s uncanny talent for understatement. While her friends are formulating a three-step game plan to protect their chastity and avoid pregnancy, LaVaughn has the failsafe solution: �The thing to do is stay virgin.� (p. 4) On the other hand, she waxes eloquent in her description of Jody and the effect his �beauty� has upon her: �He is suddenly beautiful . . .He could be in movies, the way the parts of his face go together. . .oh, I can�t imagine I ever saw such a boy before.� (p. 22, 23)
The use of simile, metaphor, imagery, and onomatopoeia give extra impact to LaVaughn�s descriptions: �Annie�s voice was like a trap getting set.� (p. 175); � . . . splush-splush-splushing the water. .� (p. 148); �My heart got bright with happiness.� (p. 134); �My hope is strong like an athlete.� (p. 14); �They prayed before they ate their food as if they went into a secret room for a minute, leaving us behind by their closed eyes and perched hands.� (p. 240)
The themes in the book will resonate with young readers, regardless of their circumstances. The complexities of adolescence make LaVaughn yearn for the simplicity of lost childhood: �We used to be pure souls. . . I felt so bad for those little pure souls, completely changed away from themselves.� (p. 132) The mysteries of love and sexuality intrigue and confuse her: �I sure would like to get kissed. How that would feel on my mouth. How different I would be after.� (p. 6)
Because she is hurt by Jody�s inability to return her affections, LaVaughn is fearful of loving again: �I don�t want to get a cat . . You get to love the little thing and then it could die. Loving is so dangerous.� (p. 261). The reader ultimately sees a changed LaVaughn, however. On her 16th birthday she has moved closer to maturity by coping with her disappointment and finding resolution: �This is the way it has turned out. . . and I think I can live with the way life is.� (p. 264)
Related Website:
An Interview with Virginia Wolff:
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com