Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff

Summary of Make Lemonade Here is a mature story of a poor adolescent girl's concern for a peer whose life challenges are more taxing than her own. Fourteen-year-old LaVaughn dreams of going to college, but her family is poor and the only way she can afford to go is to work part-time while she attends high school. LaVaughn finds a job babysitting for Jolly, a 17-year-old single mother with two children. Jolly, a high school dropout who can barely read, is worried when she is fired from her job (her boss harasses her) and can't make ends meet. Jolly is too proud to apply for welfare, but LaVaughn encourages her to enroll in a high school program for young mothers. But when LaVaughn is about to graduate and Jolly has found a new sense of independence, life brings new changes to their friendship. This poignant and realistic story of two adolescent girls struggling to define their lives is a rich character portrait for young adult readers.(Scholastic)

7. Those kids, that Jeremy and that Jilly, were sloppy and drippy and they got their hands into things you’d refuse to touch. They acted their age so much they could make you crazy. Then why did I keep going back? I heard somebody say Jolly didn’t face reality. Jolly she says, “You say that? Reality is I got baby puke on my sweater & shoes and they tell me they’ll cut off the electricity and my kids would have to take a bath in cold water. And the rent ain’t paid like usual. Reality is my babies only got one thing in the whole world and that’s me and that’s the reality. You say I don’t face reality? You say that?” I don’t know why I kept going back. But once, one night, Jeremy woke screaming in a bad dream and when I held him close he shut up for a minute but then he started again. (Page 20)

15. Jolly came home bleeding and she doesn’t have folks, “Nobody doesn’t have folks,” I said. “I’m Nobody, then,” she said, “‘cause I don’t.” Her whole face was scraped like it had a grater taken to it, like it was cheese. Jilly screamed when she saw it. I was holding her when Jolly buzzed the door, I couldn’t hide her eyes all of a sudden from her mother’s bleeding face coming in. Jeremy ran for a towel, he thought a towel would cure it. He’s a little kid, how would he know no towel’s gonna cure a whole mess of humankind? It’s the streets but I don’t tell Jeremy this. Jilly’s screaming and Jolly’s bleeding and I’m asking where her folks’ number is and Jeremy’s pushing a towel up her belly, pleading she should put it on her face and Jolly’s standing all in the middle of us with her eyes closed and my vision is caught in an instant by a cockroach going up the lamp, not in a particular hurry, just going its time up the lamp, following a littler

one that’s walked on ahead, the lamp is glowing their shells all shiny and they’re moving up toward the light. For just an instant I take time out, watching them. Then I go back to the people in the room. Jolly’s taking Jilly from me, holding her against her neck, and Jeremy’s jumping out of the way of Jilly’s kicking feet, and he’s wondering what to do with his towel, and I look around and see I’m the only one not crying in the whole house so I go get the ice. (Page 33-34)

Extension 1. Jolly is a young teenager with two children. LaVaughn tells her that people say she doesn’t face reality. Based Jolly’s response, would you say she faces reality? Why or why not? 2. Why do you think LaVaughn keeps going back to babysit for her when there are other better part-time jobs she could get? 3. Describe what you think Jolly’s face looks like in the “15.” poem. 4. What are some adjectives or action verbs that contribute to the feeling of chaos in the poem “15.?”