81 pages • 2 hours read
Make Lemonade
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary and Study Guide
Overview
First published in 1993, Virginia Euwer Wolff’s Make Lemonade is a young adult novel written in free verse. The novel received numerous awards, including the Golden Kite Award for Fiction and the Parents’ Choice Book Award, and was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and School Library Journal Best Book. While Wolff herself defines her novel as “prose” with “stanzas” rather than poetry, she includes poetic imagery and innovative use of language and grammar throughout the novel.
Make Lemonade is narrated by 14-year-old Verna LaVaughn, who lives with her single mother in a lower-class urban area. At the opening of the novel, LaVaughn tells readers she’s recounting the events of the book “just the way it went,” “including the parts [she’s] not sure about” (3). Her sometimes-grammatically-incorrect, stumbling voice reflects the realities of life for a teen in the inner city.
As the novel begins, LaVaughn, hoping to earn money for college and escape her impoverished surroundings, answers an ad for a babysitting job. She is surprised to find the ad was posted by a 17-year-old single mother, Unlock all 81 pages of this Study Guide Plus, gain access to 8,900+ more expert-written Study Guides. Including features:
