Banned Books Week Review: What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones

What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

Series: What My Mother Doesn’t Know, #1

Published: February 1st, 2001

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

261 pages (hardcover)

Genre: Contemporary young adult in verse

Acquired this book: From the library

Warning: May contain spoilers

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My name is Sophie.
This book is about me.
It tells
the heart-stoppingly riveting story
of my first love.
And also of my second.
And, okay, my third love, too.

It's not that I'm boy crazy.
It's just that even though
I'm almost fifteen
it's like
my mind
and my body
and my heart
just don't seem to be able to agree
on anything.

 {Read my review of To Be Perfectly Honest}

What My Mother Doesn’t Know was the second book I’ve read my Sonya Sones. As I said in my review of To Be Perfectly Honest, I was wary going in because I’m not the biggest fan of poetry, and I worried the verse style wouldn’t be something I’d enjoy. Within the first few pages, I got used to it, and actually really enjoyed it. It makes for a quick, fun read, and proves that you don’t have to like poetry to enjoy books in verse. 

Reading What My Mother Doesn’t Know was like being inside a teenage girl’s head. Most of the book felt almost like diary entries; it was basically Sophie’s random and disjointed thoughts, memories, observations, and stories. I’ve read a few reviews where people complained about there being little character development and that the characters were all one-dimensional, but the book is made up of poems, so what can you really expect? It’s not your typical story where everything is laid out and explained. I liked Sophie and thought she had a strong voice, so that’s what I focused on.

About 3/4 of the way through, Sophie's random thoughts actually came together to form something of a plot, and I really liked the direction the story took. It was sweet and funny, and there were a few touching moments that took this from an ‘okay’ read to a ‘good’ one for me. I appreciated the overall message, and was left feeling satisfied.

Quirky, random, and touching, What My Mother Doesn’t Know is a quick and fun read that I’d recommend to fans of contemporary YA, whether they’re familiar with verse-style books or not.

 

My thoughts on this being a banned book:

What My Mother Doesn’t Know has been in the top 10 banned books several times. Some of the reasons it was banned: sexism, sexually explicit, offensive language, nudity, and unsuited to age group. I have to admit I was surprised it was recommended for ages 12 and up. Sophie daydreamed a lot about boys and talked about kissing and other things, and while her thoughts seemed to be a bit mature at times, I didn’t find any of it offensive. I'm sure most, if not all, teenage girls think about boys and sex and kissing. I know I sure did! 

I know of parents who read everything their child/teen reads to make sure it doesn’t have ‘questionable’ material or that it's age appropriate. It's their way of screening what their kids are reading, and I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with it. It’s a parent’s prerogative to protect their child, and isn’t that far better than banning a book entirely? There’s a difference between saying ‘I don’t think this book is suitable for my child’ and saying ‘this book isn’t suitable for any child’. All children are different - some are more impressionable than others - but if books are going to be banned then shouldn’t TV, movies, and video games be banned too? Those are far more suggestive than most books. When you’re lucky enough to live in a free country, censorship goes against the very principle of freedom. If kids want to read and it’s something they’re interested in or passionate about, shouldn’t we be encouraging it and not telling them this book is too violent or that book is too sexual or any book with bad language will corrupt them?

 

Have you read What My Mother Doesn't Know? What did you think? Have you read any books in verse?

What are your thoughts on banned books?

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Review: To Be Perfectly Honest by Sonya Sones

To Be Perfectly Honest: A Novel Based on an Untrue Story by Sonya Sones

Series: Standalone

Published: August 27th, 2013

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers

496 pages (ARC)

Genre: Contemporary young adult

Acquired this book: From Simon & Schuster Canada in exchange for an honest review

Warning: May contain spoilers

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Her friends

have a joke about her:
How can you tell if Colette is lying?

Her mouth is open.

Fifteen-year-old Colette is addicted to lying. Her shrink says this is because she’s got a very bad case of Daughter-of-a-famous-movie-star Disorder—so she lies to escape out from under her mother’s massive shadow. But Colette doesn’t see it that way. She says she lies because it’s the most fun she can have with her clothes on. Not that she’s had that much fun with her clothes off. At least not yet, anyway…

When her mother drags her away from Hollywood to spend the entire summer on location in a boring little town in the middle of nowhere, Colette is less than thrilled. But then she meets a sexy biker named Connor. He’s older, gorgeous, funny, and totally into her. So what if she lies to him about her age, and about who her mother is? I mean, she has to keep her mother’s identity a secret from him. If he finds out who she really is, he’ll forget all about Colette, and start panting and drooling and asking her for her mother’s autograph. Just like everyone always does.

But what Colette doesn’t know is that Connor is keeping a secret of his own…

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t know how much I’d like this book. I was both curious and wary when I discovered it was written in verse; curious because I’d never read anything in verse and wary because I thought it would be like poetry and I’m not really a poetry kind of girl (with a few exceptions). Not knowing what to expect, I wasn't sure if it would be random and rambly or if it would be a 'real' story.

Within the first few pages of To Be Perfectly Honest, I was hooked. Colette had me laughing and wondering which parts of her stories were truth and which were made up. I loved her voice, the writing style, and the simplicity of the story itself. I also really loved that despite the simplicity, there were parts that were beautifully written. Parts I read two or three times just to let them sink in because they were such perfection. As a lover of words, those are my favourite kinds of books.

Because I went in not really knowing what to expect, I have to say I was really impressed with the story. It was funny and cute, but it also had a really great message to it. It had twists and turns, it made me laugh out loud repeatedly, but it also made me tear up once or twice. There was a little bit of everything - romance, adventure, family issues, action. I loved the relationship between Colette and her little brother, and thought they were surprisingly well-developed considering the story was told in verse. Then there was the love interest, Connor...oh Connor. I can't say much without getting into spoilers, but I'll say this: Connor was exactly what Colette needed. He came into her life at precisely the right time and taught her so much about herself, her family, and life in general.

If you're like me and you’d never read verse before because you were wary, don’t be. Honestly. I got used to it very quickly and enjoyed the flow of the story just like any other book. To Be Perfectly Honest is a hilarious, fun, unique, and touching coming-of-age story that I would recommend to any fan of contemporary young adult.

A nice side bonus to a book written in verse: I’m a very slow reader, so this was likely the first, last, and only time I’ll ever be able to read an almost 500 page book in a day. ;-)

 

Have you read To Be Perfectly Honest? What did you think?

Have you read any of Sones's other books? Or any other books in verse? Now that I have a more open mind about verse, I'm planning to read Sones's other books, but I'd love to check out a few by other authors. Do you have any recommendations? 

 

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