My name is Sophie.This book is about me.It tellsthe heart-stoppingly riveting storyof 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 thoughI'm almost fifteenI've been having sort of a hard timetrying to figure out the differencebetween love and lust.It's likemy mindand my bodyand my heartjust don't seem to be able to agreeon anything. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

"Drawing on the recognizable cadence of teenage speech, the author poignantly captures the tingle and heartache of being young and boy-crazy," wrote PW in a starred review. "She weaves separate free verse poems into a fluid and coherent narrative with a satisfying ending." Ages 12-up. (Feb.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 6-8-A story written in poetry form. Sophie is happily dating Dylan, "until he's practically glued himself to my side." Then she falls for cyberboy ("if I could marry a font/I'd marry his"). Imagine her surprise when he becomes downright scary. In the satisfying ending, Sophie finds the perfect boyfriend-someone she's known all along. Sones is a bright, perceptive writer who digs deeply into her protagonist's soul. There she reveals the telltale signs of being "boy crazy"; the exciting edginess of cyber romances; the familiar, timeless struggle between teens and parents; and the anguish young people feel when their parents fight. But life goes on, and relationships subtly change. Sones's poems are glimpses through a peephole many teens may be peering through for the first time, unaware that others are seeing virtually the same new, scary, unfamiliar things (parents having nuclear meltdowns, meeting a boyfriend's parents, crying for no apparent reason). In What My Mother Doesn't Know, a lot is revealed about the teenage experience- ("could I really be falling for that geek I dissed a month ago?"), clashes with close friends, and self-doubts. It could, after all, be readers' lives, their English classes, their hands in a first love's. Of course, mothers probably do know these goings-on in their daughters' lives. It's just much easier to believe they don't. Sones's book makes these often-difficult years a little more livable by making them real, normal, and OK.-Sharon Korbeck, Waupaca Area Public Library, WI Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information