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    What My Mother Doesn't Know
    What My Mother Doesn't Know
    What My Mother Doesn't Know
    Audiobook2 hours

    What My Mother Doesn't Know

    Written by Sonya Sones

    Narrated by Kate Reinders

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    My name is Sophie.
    This book is about me.
    It tells the heart-stoppingly riveting story of 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 though I’m almost fifteen it’s like my mind and my body and my heart just don’t seem to be able to agree on anything.

    "Fast, funny, touching." - Booklist, starred review
    "A verse experience that will leave readers sighing with recognition and satisfaction." - Kirkus Reviews, starred review
    "Honest...destined to captivate." - Publishers Weekly, starred review

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJun 20, 2008
    ISBN9781423365754
    Author

    Sonya Sones

    Sonya Sones has written seven novels in verse: The Opposite of Innocent, Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy; What My Mother Doesn’t Know and its companion, What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know; One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies; To Be Perfectly Honest; and Saving Red. Sonya’s books have received many honors, but she was especially thrilled when she learned that she was on the American Library Association’s list of the Most Frequently Challenged Authors of the 21st Century. She lives near the beach in California. You can visit her at www.sonyasones.com or write her at sonyasones@gmail.com.

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    Reviews for What My Mother Doesn't Know

    4/5

    34 ratings26 reviews

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    • 5/5
      The setting of the book is at Sophie’s home, and school in Boston city. All the action takes place at school. The time of the year in this book is in the present. It was in summer and winter time of the year. The main characters of my book were: Sophie, Sophie’s mother, Sophie’s dad, Rachel, Grace, Dylan, Robin (Murphy), Lou, Zak, and Henry. The characters are believable in my opinion, because she is a teenager like me, and I am sure most of us girls can be described as Sophie, by the way she acts. The character I like the most was Sophie, because she speaks tender, honest and with the truth, the poetry of an innocent kiss and the passion of a teenager’s heart. I can relate to Sophie, because some of us teenagers have passed through some of her problems. I have done some of the things that happened in the story, and also I have felt the same way as the characters did. The conflict or problem in the story was that Sophie falls in love with her “ugly” friend Murphy, who results her passionate boyfriend. The resolution of the story was that Sophie never told her friends about her boyfriend “Murphy” so, she broke up with “Murphy”, so her friends wouldn’t know about what happened. The problem was solved because, Sophie first told “Murphy” that she was going to tell her friends about her relationship with “Murphy”, evidently “Murphy” asked her if she told her friends about them, but she told him that she wasn’t going out with him, and preferred to stay as friends. This story is about a teenage girl named Sophie, the book tells about Sophie’s life, for example; her first love, and having a hard time on figuring out the difference between love and lust. Sophie has two best friends who are Rachel and Grace, having confidence in them telling them all Sophie’s secrets, and boyfriends she had had. Until, real love can to her life which was “Murphy” and ugly guy which no one ever specked to him, and didn’t tell her friends about her little secret, even through he loved her. They preferred to stay both friends. I sort of liked the ending, because I thought Sophie and “Murphy” were going to stay together in their relationship. What I liked about this book was that Sophie told the reader everything about her secrets and relationships she had. What I would change about this book is the ending, by having Rachel and Grace accept Murphy in Sophie’s relationship. What I learned about this book was that friends are not always going to be with you whenever you need them. I think all youth should read this book, especially us the teenagers because we can get inside her “world” by comparing her life with our life. RATING: I couldn’t put it down, it was so good!
    • 4/5
      Sophie is just your average teenager - not the kind of girl to fall for a completely unacceptable boy. But she has, and she just knows her friends will never tolerate this, so now what?
    • 5/5
      It was about a girl and how poems make her life story. She lives a horrible teenage life and tries to make it turn into a more positive experience. -NW
    • 5/5
      Characters: Sophie, Rachel, Grace, Robin (Murphy)Setting: High school in Cambridge, Massachusetts Theme: Friendship, love (at first dance), don't judge a book by its cover, internet safety, controlling private information, family (mother daughter relationship)Summary: Sophie and her best friends, Rachel and Grace, are high school freshmen who share common ground: love for boys. Sophie dates Dylan, but things do not work out like in a Hollywood movie. She is first distanced from him when she becomes attracted to the boy she met online who turns out to have an unacceptably perverted mind. When she notices that she has physically outgrown Dylan, she knows it is over with him. But her Hollywood movie style romance has rekindled when she dances with a mysterious masked man at a dance night. She later finds out that he is Robin called by Murphy by everyone at school, the word used as a substitute for jerk. But it does not stop her from helplessly falling in love with who he really is: A guy with a beautiful smile, a mesmerizing gleam in the eyes, and a big fat warm heart. The book ends with Sophie making a decision of dating him in public despite the fear that she will be just as much as a laughingstock and a loner as he is.Review: I will definitely have a hard time searching for a cuter high school romance novel than "What My Mother Doesn't know." I read the part about Sophie stating that she hates her mom, but she hates herself even more for hating her mom, multiple times; she spoke for all the daughters in the world. I loved how Sophie was not swayed by others' thoughts and always had a place in her heart for Robin. I hope that as teenagers read this novel, they take a second look at Robins at their school and really "see" them, not just look at them. Another thing I loved was the friendship the girls had. Often, girls are notorious for abandoning their friendship for love and crawling back to their friends once the love life is over. The friendship the girls had was enviable and truthful. Also, the book teaches them about the dangers and pitfalls of dating guys online.Curriculum ties: Technology (internet safety, digital citizenship), Health (decision making, passing judgments, school bullying), art (flip drawing, art titles introduced in the book)
    • 4/5
      It's hard to imagine why this book would be on a banned book list. The teen voice rings true .The free verse format is very effective. You laugh and cry along with Sophie. Well worth the read.
    • 3/5
      The plot and love story in this book were quite cute, and the guy was pleasantly atypical. However, the writing style was atypical, too. It was written in a poetic kind of way, which I give kudos to the author for trying to employ, but I honestly think the story would have been a lot better if the author had just written in in normal format. Either way, an interesting cute little read.
    • 5/5
      Me and my two best friends read through the whole book at one of my sleepovers, and we loved it so much it inspired us to read the rest of the series! There were times when we were simply surprised (like why Murphy?), confused (what the heck is "the trick???"), and times when we just about burst out laughing. An excellent read for girls, it does certainly tell what can happen that a mother doesn't know about... 
    • 5/5
      This is a quick, beautifully written story about a fourteen-year-old girl who experiences life, love, and heartbreak in the midst of growing up. This coming of age story very much gets at the heart of many issues that adolescent girls face, and deals with them in a frank, but poetic manner. As the main character, Sohpie, grapples with becoming an adult and making mature decisions, she makes a few mistakes along the way, which are dealt with through honest reflection. This book would be great for reluctant readers in a middle school classroom, or for those who want an "easy" read.
    • 5/5
      What my Mother Doesn’t Know is the story of Sophie and her life as a teenager. She is starting school and really wants to fit in. She has her two best friends who are always there for her. She is also experiences her “first love”. She is head over heels for Dylan but then the feelings start changing. Sophie must decide whether to stay with Dylan or try to find love other places.This story would be good for middle age girls to read. Sophie is totally relatable and is going through the same things that girls at that age go through. She is discovering boys which that are mostly what girls at that age think about. I loved this book! I thought since it was in poetry form that I would not enjoy it but I did. It was very easy to read and not confusing at all. I loved how the author made the characters very realistic. I actually felt like I was in school with them. The author made teen love very believable. I was sitting on the edge trying to figure out who Sophie was going to end up with. I read the book in one night and couldn’t put it down. Once I was finished, I ran out to buy the sequel. It is that good!
    • 4/5
      This Book was really good. It is about a 15 or 16 year old girl. It is written like poetry. This girl starts out as a selfish girl who is only into guys who are good looking but over spring break all of her friends are gone and she becomes really close to the geek in her grade.
    • 4/5
      "What My Mother Doesn't Know" is about Sophie, a young woman who details her first few "loves." First there is Lou, her first boyfriend, whom she doesn't talk about much (only mentioning him when he broke up with her in the prior year). Then there is Dylan, who is probably her first "real love," but things go downhill with him. Then there is Chaz, an online creep whom Sophie (thankfully) never meets in person. Finally, there's the "masked man" at the Halloween dance. Written in free verse, the book is a very quick read (I was done with it in less than an hour) and engaging, although easy to just skim through instead of appreciating each separate poem.
    • 5/5
      Told in a series of short poems, this book conveys a wonderful message to young teens about the importance of looking beyond the surface image of the people you know and finding out who that person really is.
    • 5/5
      This is the first and only book I've read that was written entirely in poetry, and I absolutely loved it. The only thing I do not like about this book is that the cover looks nothing like the main character (this is even more apparent in the sequel!) A great read.
    • 4/5
      This was just lovely, I ached along with Sophie at each stage of her relationships, agonised with her over her choices, and rejoiced in her success. This story captured the intoxicating mix of drama, crushes, and questions that make up a term of life in high school. Sophie is surrounded by good friends, distant parents, and a series of love-interests that capture her hormones and her heart. There are plenty of amusing situations, but it is the moments of crystal clarity, Sophie's total openness with her feelings about the new adult body she is starting to inhabit, and the adult world she is entering, that make this much more than a teen romance story.I'd give this to teenaged girls interested in relationships, realistic fiction, and possibly art.
    • 5/5
      This novel in verse gives a great depiction of adolescent romance. It starts out with Sophie's first love, the smokin' Dylan, and then continues as she chats with her cyber soulmate Chaz and develops an unlikely crush on the geeky Murphy. It's sweet and really rings true. I'm so looking forward to checking out the rest of Sonya Sones's books!
    • 3/5
      Sophie is suffering from a freshman-year boy crisis--falling out of love with one boy and in love with another, a masked boy at the Halloween dance who's probably handsome and mysterious and dashing, and almost certainly not the awkward boy who's become the butt of most of the class jokes...right?There's a very brief "fling" with an online boy who (predictably) turns out to be a creeper, but there was never any actual danger for Sophie. I did appreciate the way that she falls for Murphy--she gets to know him and THEN falls for him, rather than her previous boyfriend, with whom things happened in the opposite order and didn't work out so well.The verse novel moves quickly and is an engaging light read, but it isn't as memorable as some of Sones' other books, especially "Stop Pretending."
    • 5/5
      My name is Sophie.This book is about me.It tells the heart-stoppingly riveting story of 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 though I’m almost fifteen it’s like my mind and my body and my heart just don’t seem to be able to agree on anything.
    • 3/5
      What my Mother doesn't know by Sonya SonesReviewed by Moirae the fates book reviews.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 fifteenit's likemy mindand my bodyand my heartjust don't seem to be able to agreeon anything. (Synopsis provided by goodreads)For me this book was simply okay. After learning it was on the banned/challenge book list like many people my interest was peaked. The reasoning for the ban is all due to one line in the book. That's it.Books told in verse are quick reads and if you have to like or at least not mind it to read this one.I don't mind if a book is told in verse or not. I liked this one enough I just wish we knew a little more about who Sophie is not who her latest boyfriend was.It was a fast read and the book was cute enough. My favorite part was the dance, that the most fun to read. I'd say give this one a try. * Paperback: 259 pages * Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (February 1, 2003) * ISBN-10: 0689855532 * Author: Sonya Sones * Cover art: I like it * Overall rating: *** out of 5 stars * Obtained: My personal book shelf
    • 5/5
      This collection of poems traces Sophie's relationship with Dylan... and Chazz... and Robin... and explores the teenage emotions that come with being a freshman in looooove. Well written, and good way to get kids to read poetry.
    • 5/5
      This book shows the reader the love life of a teeange girl named Sophie and, her mother has left her and her sister with their dad. She tells her story of going through boys and realizing how they're not all the same. It shows of the temptations that a teenage girl can go through. Also, it shows how she feels secluded of not adventuring just as her friends do when on break. But, at the end she turns out alright, realizing that maybe the ending you never thought of was the one that was always meant for you.
    • 4/5
      Similar to Angus Thongs, a story about boys and girls and growing up. Written in prose but formatted like poetry. The rhyme scheme is almost inconspicuous, which made it easier to read. Great for reluctant readers.
    • 4/5
      What My Mother Doesn’t Know features a teenage protagonist, Sophie, who is a typical teenage girl dreaming of finding her one true love. After three failed relationships, she begins to secretly develop a crush on the school geek, Murphy. During the summer, Sophie decides to take an imaginary vacation by herself around the town where she encounters her "friend" Murphy on the trip. Will Murphy be her one true love she's been searching for or will the label of school geek turn her away from him? This story is a real page turner and will definitely keep you wondering until the end. It is written in free verse, which, I feel, helps the reader to connect with what the protagonist is feeling. The author precisely portrays an adolescent female’s emotions and feelings of love and growing up. Because the protagonist sometimes descriptively expresses her feelings, I would suggest grade levels below ninth grade not read this book.
    • 1/5
      I didn't really have so much of an interest in this book as much as i did in the beginning. I felt as if the point of view of the main character was from a 7th grader, not so much a fourteen-year-old. Nor did i find myself fond of the format of the text either, since it was set up in a poetic form i grew tired of it farly quickly. I also got pretty confused with all the male characters that wove their way through the pages and how poorly they were described compared to Sophie's "first love".
    • 4/5
      This story tells about Sophie's life and it is narrated by her. She reports about finding true love, friendship and her way to become an adult.When the story starts Sophie is fifteen years old and until now she had a totally normal life in Boston. Her parents don’t understand each other very well, her first love is withering away and unfortunately she will have to spend her winter holiday at home. All these things are looming ominously over her.Therefore Sophie decides to make her own enjoyable and relaxing vacation in Boston. She creates a sightseeing program and on her fact-finding tour through her town she meets a boy, who she knows, in fact, and begins to see him in a different light..What My Mother Doesn’t Know is a consecutive narration in short poems. The poetry is never pretentious or difficult; on the contrary, the very short, sometimes rhythmic lines make each page fly and the book to a very enjoyable and special read.
    • 1/5
      I started one of Sones’ books in the past and didn’t even bother finishing it, but I’ve been hearing so many good things about her lately that I decided to give her another shot.This time I picked up a copy of What My Mother Doesn’t Know and once again I was disappointed. I wouldn’t have even bothered finishing if it weren’t for the fact that I was trapped at work for seven more hours with no other source of entertainment.Contrary to the blurb on the back of the book, Sophie IS boy crazy! She goes through three different guys in this short book, and whenever she’s not with one she’s dreaming about one. Heck, even when she has a boyfriend she’s dreaming of a different guy! I disliked Sophie from the very beginning, I found her immature, shallow and annoying. Her entire brain was about making out with boys and nothing more.I didn’t feel like this book had a plot line at all. It basically just followed Sophie around during her dating escapades. At one point during the story Sophie considers breaking up with her “then” boyfriend rather than telling her best friends who he was because she was afraid they’d make fun of her. This just proved to me how shallow she really was; if you can’t even tell your so called “best friends” who you’re dating for fear they’ll make fun of you instead of be happy for you, then maybe they’re not really true friends.While reading at work my co-worker looked over at me and said wow, you’re really not liking that book are you? Apparently I had quite the grimace on my face. It was while I was reading an awkward passage about girls popping each other’s zits at a sleepover (GROSS!) There were a lot of awkward passages like this scattered throughout the story.Overall, I was unable to understand people’s interest in Sones’ books and did not find it worth my time. I won’t be reading anything more from this author.
    • 3/5
      This book is about a young girl name Sophie. It speaks about her "love" and crushes she has with different boys throughout the book. The entire time she speaks about kissing and trying to learn the difference between lust and love. Everything she talks about that refers to love seem a little mature; however, it is an eye opener for some parents. I believe that is why it is titled What My Mother Doesn't Know.The book has a scene about her chatting with a boy on cyberspace. My first idea is for my students to have a grand conversation after using resources, such as internet (working in the lab), dictionary, etc., to discuss the dangers of meeting with people on the net. Hopefully, this will give our students some insight on how dangerous that could have been if Sophie went out and met him. The next idea I have is for my students to do a quickwrite for 6 minutes about a time they can remember from middle school. The time could be about something dealing with their grades, a teacher, friends, peers, etc. The students will then take home their quickwrite and put it into poem form.I enjoyed reading the book. It is so surreal as you read it. You think woah, too much information sometimes, but it opens up your eyes to what young adolescents are thinking and doing. I like that it is written in poem form. Being in poem form it is easy to read and follow along. I rate it 3 1/2 stars, and I would share the book in a middle school classroom.