Genre 3 Book 3 - Poetry

1. Bibliography
Sones, Sonya. 2007. WHAT MY GIRLFRIEND DOESN’T KNOW. New York: Simon Pulse.
ISBN 0689876033

2. Plot Summary
A novel written in verse, Sones does a remarkable job representing a young male’s perspective. This novel is centered on a character, Robin Murphy, who all his life has been an outcast. Other students ridiculed him, even using his last name to diss other people as in “You are a real Murphy.” Then it all changes when the girl of his dreams, a popular girl name Sophie Stein, falls for him. Sones allow the readers to feel the range of emotions Robin experiences throughout the journey of this relationship. From the disbelieve, “Is this really happening” to extreme happiness, “I chase after her, feeling like the luckiest desperado alive,” Murphy experiences the challenges of loving and being loved by someone unconditionally. True to adolescence, Sones faces other issues as well such as how to handle the awareness of being sexually attracted to someone. This fast flowing offers an interesting approach to a variety of adolescence dilemmas.

3. Critical Analysis
Written in first-person free verse, WHAT MY GIRLFRIEND DOESN’T KNOW, is a fast paced novel that keeps the reader grasping for more. Though there are no illustrations, Sones uses vocabulary to pull at the reader’s emotions. “If only everyone else could see what Sophie sees when she looks at me” depicts the need for acceptance by Robin. Teens will see some of themselves in the diversified characters. There is Robin (the main character, an outcast male), (Sophie, the popular girl who falls for the unpopular guy), Rachel, (Sophie’s friend who abandons her because popularity is important), the jock and then Robin’s college friends.

On each page, the first line is centered in bold at the type to appear as a title of the page. Sones inserts shape poetry in combination with the vocabulary to further emphasize the emotions: on page 203, the poem is written in the shape of a downward arrow and the font gets smaller as it descends. Robin is feeling “down” about his relationship as he says “…all the way down to American, then down to Massachusetts and all the way to Cambridge, zooming pas the ribbon of Charles, and all the way down to Shepard Street, down and down and down…” She does quite the opposite on page 144 as the writing starts out small and gets larger descending down the page in order to illustrate Robin’ growing frustrations.

The design of the pages combined with the immediate attention given to teen issues is a strong point. Sones addresses issues that many find taboo, but that young adults can’t seem to get enough of.

4. Review Excerpt(s)
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: The arty outsider's last name becomes the pejorative slang of the school—as in, "Don't be such a Murphy."
BOOKLIST: “…Robin picks up the narrative in rapid-fire, first-person free verse as he describes their school's reaction to the relationship…”

5. Connections
WHAT MY GIRLFRIEND DOESN’T KNOW is a sure prize for young adults. This book along with its prequel WHAT MY MOTHER DOESN’T KNOW is a great suggestion for reluctant readers. Other books by Sonya Sones are STOP PRETENDING: WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MY BIG SISTER WENT CRAZY, and ONE OF THOSE HIDEOUS BOOKS WHERE THE MOTHER DIES.