True Believer

By: Virginia Euwer Wolff

Narrated by: Heather Alicia Simms

National Book Award, Young People's Literature, 2001

What's new in LaVaughn's life is Jody, a boy she knew as a child who's come back to the housing project where she lives. Jody is like a miracle: he smells like chlorine; he calls her "little buddy;" he goes with her to the dance. It's just as if he's in love with her. Except not quite.

As LaVaughn puzzles over Jody, as her best friends struggle with belief and acceptance, and as Jody wrestles with questions about his own identity, Virginia Euwer Wolff rises to the occasion with this astonishing and powerfully moving novel, the second in the Make Lemonade trilogy.

©2001 Virginia Euwer Wolff (P)2002 Random House, Inc., Listening Library, An Imprint Of Random House Audio Publishing Group

Critic reviews

"Wolff surpasses herself with this sequel...In delving into LaVaughn's life, the author unmasks the secret thoughts adolescents hold sacred and lets her readers know they are not alone." (Publishers Weekly)
"LaVaughn tells her own story in heart-stopping stream-of-consciousness that reveals her convincing naiveté and her blazing determination, intelligence, and growth." (Booklist)

This is a fantastic book...

...for adults as well as adolescents. It is written in blank verse, and the author has captured the cadence of thinking. Narration by Heather Alicia Sims is splendid. It is not suitable for small children, as the themes would be beyond them.