WHAT MY GIRLFRIEND DOESN'T KNOW
Sonya Sones
Simon & Schuster
Fiction
ISBN-10: 0689876025
ISBN-13: 9780689876028
304 pages

In this sequel to WHAT MY MOTHER DOESN'T KNOW, we learn what happens next with Sophie and Robin --- but this time, it’s from the artistic outsider Robin Murphy’s point of view. Struggling to make sense of how he’s actually dating pretty, popular Sophie Stein, Robin learns that getting your heart’s desire isn’t always easy.

Author Sonya Sones once again masterfully creates a book in verse that throws the reader into the depths of the character’s soul. With her amazing poetry, the voice of Robin is so strikingly real and full of self-doubt. “I told her I’d understand if it has to end. / And sure I’ll understand. / Because, I mean, what girl in her right mind / would want to be seen hanging with me? / With Murphy… / the ugliest guy at Cambridge High? / The guy whose last name people use as a diss. / As in: “You are a real Murphy.”

But even though he is wracked with confusion, life is looking up for Robin. Not only is he dating gorgeous Sophie, but he also is selected by his art teacher to audit an art class at Harvard University. There, he finally feels like he belongs. Nobody knows him as “a Murphy,” the butt of all jokes. At Harvard he is the jokester, and better yet, he makes new friends, including a female student who develops a crush on him.

Back in his real high school life, however, things with Sophie become tough. Her friends have ostracized her for dating Robin. Even though they love each other, it’s as if it’s Robin and Sophie against the world. Can Robin allow Sophie to sacrifice her social life just to date him?

Like Sones’s previous books, WHAT MY GIRLFRIEND DOESN'T KNOW is a truly enjoyable and fast-paced read. Her story feels so rich and full of life, and it’s amazing what she can do with so few words. Robin is an authentic male teen voice whose struggle is often heartbreaking, realistic and funny. As a reader, I can’t wait to see what Sones writes next.

   --- Reviewed by Kristi Olson

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