AUS / UK edition
Faber and Faber
July 2005
$14.95 AU
264p pb
ISBN: 978-0571207022
fp
February 2001
Book
of trilogy
follows Make Lemonade and
followed by This Full House
US edition
Simon Pulse
October 2002
$9.99 US
264p pb
ISBN: 978-0689852886
True Believer
Virginia Euwer Wolff
from the book...
When LaVaughn was little, the obstacles in her life didn't seem so bad. If she had an argument with Annie or Myrtle, it would never last long. If she fell out with her mother, they would have made it up by bedtime. School was simple. Boys were friends. Everything made sense.
But LaVaughn is now fifteen and the obstacles aren't going away anymore. Big questions separate her from her friends. Her mother is distracted by a new man. School could slip away from her so easily. And the boy who's a miracle in her life acts as if he's in love with her. Only he's not in love with her.
If you have read this verse novel and would like to share your opinion of it with other readers please send your review or comments to YARR-A
True Believer,
by Virginia Euwer Wolff, is the second novel in the Make
Lemonade trilogy. This enticing verse novel was a national book
award
finalist and is one of three novels about LaVaughn, her family and her
community.
LaVaughn
knows what she wants out of life and will go as far as she can to
achieve it. She is a fifteen year old who
knows what it’s like to live
surrounded
by a life of poverty and violence and is out to achieve her goals and
not just
be another inner-city statistic. This
transcendent storyline explores the values of a very
bright girl who
is finding that those obstacles that would usually disappear aren’t
going away
anymore.
Her
world seemed so simple compared to most others but one day that all
seemed to
change. These small obstacles didn’t seem to go away anymore. She is still striving to achieve the same
goals, going to
college and
leaving her hometown but they have become even more challenging. She was always good at ignoring the boys and
studying
hard. Then Jody,
LaVaughn’s childhood friend, moves back into the neighbourhood and 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 structured world
upside
down.
The
experiences the characters in True
Believer are faced with are very realistic. Many
teenagers would be able to relate to the issues
within the novel,
which makes this uplifting storyline intriguing to many young readers.
It
greatly appeals to a wide audience with its realistic storyline about
the life
of a teenager. This is why I would
recommend this novel to anyone looking for a good read and also enjoys
a well
structured verse novel.
Kate,
Year 10,
True
Believer
is a book about LaVaughn and her life and follows on from Make
Lemonade. The book starts by describing LaVaughn and her mum
and how LaVaughn is trying to get Jody to go to the dance with her and
to get
him to like her. Jody and LaVaughn were friends when they were little
but then
Jody moved away with his mum. But Jody then comes back into LaVaughn’s
life
when his mum and he move back into the building. True
Believer shows how LaVaughn feels about Jody and how he breaks her
heart
twice with just a kiss. It shows the struggles LaVaughn faces with
juggling
school, her social life, her job and Jody.
I
really enjoyed this book because it deals with many issues that
teenagers face
these days, such as dealing with school, social life, work and also the
future.
I liked this book because it was well written; it is a quick read
because it is
so hard to put down. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it
to people
between 14 to 17 years old.
Ben,
Year 10, Canberra, Australia
“Do
you still remember your plans for college, Verna LaVaughn?” These are
the
questioning words of a mother who wants her daughter to live a life of
education, but most importantly, a life without everything she lives
with now.
Verna LaVaughn is growing up in a neighbourhood of murder and survival.
The
school has armed guards and students pass through a metal detector
everyday. The
only thing keeping LaVaughn going are her friends and everyone around
her. Her
life changes all of a sudden when one of her oldest friends, Jodie,
shows up and
La Vaughn falls in love. Her best friends seem to have lost interest in
La
Vaughn and Jodie; they are to busy with their club, ‘Cross Your Legs
For
Jesus’. LaVaughn battles her feelings, her friends and her school and
just
when she starts to get the hang of it, Jodie does something horrible.
When
I picked this book up, I couldn’t it down. It covered a broad range of
issues
we as teenagers face. LaVaughn and everyone else seem like real people,
with all
their thoughts and interactions. It was easy to relate to everyone in
the book
and where they are coming from. The layout of the book made it easy to
read, but
the ending left a few things unsolved, leaving room for the third book
in this
trilogy. I think this book is perfect for early-mid teens confused
about life
and choices.
True
Believer is a book that
has opened my eyes to the world that is not my community. My parents
grew up
with the same experiences that LaVaughn is going through. She is
also
like a duplicate of me. There are things in life that can cause you to
lose
faith and even wonder if there really is a God out there. Jody seems to
grab my
attention the most because I'm always wondering, "Does he like her?"
The book just keeps me guessing. She also doesn't like to tell anyone
that she
likes Jody. I'm the same way. I seem to not trust anyone and I can seem
abandoned by everyone else. I can actually see that not all people live
like me,
in a safe neighbourhood, go to a safe school, have a car, have both my
parents
here with me. I can see that many girls out there aren't feeling like I
do. This
book has changed my life.
Maria
True
Believer is a story, told in verse,
of friendship, love, a better future and a girl named LaVaughn.
LaVaughn is a
teenage girl growing up in a rough neighbourhood, where people have no
future,
and shootings, like the one that killed her father, are the norm.
LaVaughn
though, hasn’t yet succumbed to the life of those around her and
believes that
there is something better and the way to find that is by going to
college. LaVaughn, though idealistic has other things on her mind; old
friends are slipping
away, new ones wanting to get closer, and a boy named Jody.
I
thought that True Believer was a great read that kept me
guessing and
hooked all the way through. The book also had many different layers and
if you
dug down just a little there are quite a few good lessons to be learnt.
The book
also dealt with many real life issues but they were a bit of a
hyperbole, but
not so much as to blur the meaning being conveyed by the author.
I
would recommend this book to readers above ten who enjoy a good book.
The story
I think would have meaning to many different people on many different
levels,
and everyone would take something different and meaningful away from
this story.