Starred Review ALA Booklist (Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 1993)

Starred Review Wolff's latest novel stretches her considerable talents in a new direction. Written in a riveting, stream-of-consciousness fashion, with the lines laid out on the page as if they were the verses of a poem, the book plunges into the depths of inner-city poverty. But instead of focusing on the gangs that spread fear in city tenements, Wolff writes about ordinary folks trying to get by as best they can. Fourteen-year-old LaVaughn, clever yet still naive, wants to go to college, a word that bears such weight in her home "you have to walk around it in the rooms like furniture." To earn money, she takes a baby-sitting job with 17-year-old Jolly, a proud young woman with two small children. LaVaughn's reactions to Jolly and the children, described in her colorful personal idiom, are mixed with the stories that anchor her own life and enriched by a strong sense of place. There's humor as well as anguish in the tableaux she sets before us, with some of the funniest and most stirring scenes revolving around Jolly's children, both fully realized characters. Revealing as well are interactions between LaVaughn and her single-parent mother, from whom LaVaughn has obviously inherited stubbornness and a healthy measure of good sense. Jolly's problems provide the book's drama. Barely more than a child herself, she has no idea how to "take hold," as LaVaughn's mother says, and it's ironic that it is someone younger than Jolly, an outsider, who shows her the way. Rooted not in a particular culture, but in the community of poverty, the story offers a penetrating view of the conditions that foster our ignorance, destroy our self-esteem, and challenge our strength. That education is the bridge to a better life is the unapologetic, unmistakable theme, symbolized by the sprouting of the lemon seeds LaVaughn plants for Jolly's children. At once disturbing and uplifting, this finely nuanced, touching portrait proudly affirms our ability to reach beyond ourselves and reach out to one another.

Horn Book

Fourteen-year-old LaVaughn accepts the job of baby-sitting Jolly's two small children but quickly realizes that the young woman, a seventeen-year-old single mother, needs as much help and nurturing as her two neglected children. The four become something akin to a temporary family, and through their relationship each makes progress toward a better life. Sixty-six brief chapters, with words arranged on the page like poetry perfectly echo the patterns of teenage speech.

Kirkus Reviews

Wolff follows her rich portrait of a gifted young musician (The Mozart Season, 1991, ALA Notable) with a spare, beautifully crafted depiction of a 14-year-old whose goal of escaping poverty is challenged by friendship with a single teenage mother. With the support of her widowed mom, who's always made ends meet, LaVaughn sets her sights on college but knows she'll have to come up with the money herself. Taking a job caring for Jolly's babies while Jolly works, she's soon enmeshed in the young woman's problems—especially after Jolly is fired for spurning a harassing boss. Deeply concerned for the feckless, near- illiterate 17-year-old's welfare, LaVaughn is tempted to give her the money she's saved; yet (as marvelously encapsulated in LaVaughn's internal debate) she makes the tough decision that That won't help...I feel very mixed but my eyes stay steady.'' With difficulty (Jolly's too proud to ask for welfare and fears losing her children), she persuades her to enter a high-school program for young mothers. It's best for both—Jolly begins totake hold'' of her life—but bittersweet: while LaVaughn's grades go back up, she must relinquish her beloved charges. LaVaughn's narrative—brief, sometimes ungrammatical sentences in uneven lines, like verse—is in a credible teenage voice suited to readers like Jolly herself; yet it has the economy and subtlety of poetry. These girls could be from more than one ethnic group and almost any inner city—the setting is deliberately vague; but their troubles—explored in exquisite specificity—are universal. Hopeful—and powerfully moving. (Fiction. 10+)"

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Radiant with hope, this keenly observed and poignant novel is a stellar addition to YA literature,'' said PW in a starred review, praising Wolff's use ofmeltingly lyric blank verse'' to tell of two inner-city teenage girls struggling toward better lives. Ages 12-up. (Aug.)

School Library Journal

Gr 7-12-- ``This word COLLEGE is in my house,/ and you have to walk around it in the rooms/ like furniture.'' So LaVaughn, an urban 14-year-old, tries to earn the money she needs to make college a reality. She and her mother are a solid two-person family. When LaVaughn takes a job babysitting for Jolly, an abused, 17-year-old single parent who lives with her two children in squalor, her mother is not sure it's a good idea. How the girl's steady support helps Jolly to bootstrap herself into better times and how Jolly, in turn, helps her young friend to clarify her own values are the subjects of this complex, powerful narrative. The themes of parental love, sexual harassment, abuse, independence, and the value of education are its underpinnings. LaVaughn is a bright, compassionate teen who is a foil for Jolly, whose only brief role model was a foster parent, Gram, who died. The dynamics between the two young women are multidimensional and elastic--absolutely credible. LaVaughn's mother is a complete character, too, and even Jolly's kids become real. The tale is told in natural first-person, and in rhythmic prose arranged in open verse. The poetic form emphasizes the flow of the teenager's language and thought. The form invites readers to drop some preconceptions about novels, and they will find the plot and characters riveting. Make Lemonade is a triumphant, outstanding story. --Carolyn Noah, Central Mass. Regional Library System, Worcester, MA