50. What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones

What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

ISBN: 978-0-689-87603-5

Simon & Schuster, New York, 2007

291 p.

Plot Summary

High school freshman Robin Murphy cannot believe his luck.  He has become a running joke throughout the school, resulting in the popular phrases “don’t be such a Murphy” and “you are a real Murphy” being shouted in the halls whenever someone does something stupid or klutzy.  The popular kids bully him endlessly, but, somehow, he manages to get one of the popular girls, Sophie Stein, to be his girlfriend.  Sophie’s friends try to get through to her and make her choose between Robin and them, and, not caring about the social ramifications, she chooses Robin.  Although they are constantly bombarded with rude comments, Sophie keeps reassuring Robin that they should not let anyone else dictate their relationship.  Because of his artistic talent, Robin takes an art class at Harvard, meeting fellow students that know nothing of what “Murphy” means and truly accept him.  However, he is brought back down to earth when he returns to the bullies that roam the halls at school.  When Robin hears the phrase “pulling a Stein” one day at school, he starts to wonder if he is being selfish by keeping the relationship going although Sophie is being pulled into loser-dom with him.

Critical Evaluation

What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know is a free verse novel written in first person, from the point-of-view of Robin Murphy.  Writing the novel in verse creates a fast-paced narrative as readers feel the range of emotions that Robin goes through as he experiences first love.  Because the pages contain sparse amounts of words, each word is given a level of importance and the placement of words in the verses gives the novel a rhythm reminiscent of song lyrics.  For example, in a verse describing Robin’s surprise at seeing Sophie at his front door after running away from her, Sones writes, “My Heart Catapults Up Into My Throat/Then boomerangs/right back down/into my feet./I never knew a person could feel/like jumping for joy/and jumping off a bridge/at the exact/same/moment” (p. 152).  By separating the words “exact same moment” into separate lines, the reader takes a pause between each word, feeling Robin’s shock at seeing Sophie and his worry about what he needs to tell her.  The length of the verses conveys Robin’s emotions, as well; when Robin is feeling a high level of emotion, the verses tend to be shorter than the rest.  Sones adds a bit of humor when she makes the verses into shapes that relate to the topic a couple of times in the novel, including one reminiscent of Pinocchio when Robin lies to Sophie about his first day in drawing class.

I love the way that Sones writes the character of Robin.  Dealing with bullying for many years, Robin has become accustomed to constantly being criticized and picked on, resulting in his extreme lack of self-esteem.  However, his freshman year of high school changes everything when his relationship with Sophie and his new friends at Harvard help him gain confidence in himself.  In part because of his social awkwardness and flaws, Sones creates a likeable and realistic character that I wanted to see succeed in his relationship with Sophie and overcome the power that the school bullies have on him.

Reader's Annotation

School loser Robin Murphy cannot believe his luck that he is dating one of the most popular girls in school, Sophie Stein.  However, when their relationship causes her to lose her best friends and face the same torment he goes through, Robin begins to wonder if she would be better off without him.

Information About the Author

Sonya Sones was born in Newton, a suburb of Boston.  When she was seventeen, she fell in love with making animated films and enrolled in Hampshire College to study filmmaking and photography, while also teaching animation to children.  After graduation, she was hired to teach film at Harvard University.  She then moved to Hollywood to work for a famous movie director as his personal assistant, but she was fired after only a month.  Sones decided to stay in Hollywood and found work as an animator, a production assistant on a Woody Allen movie, and a still photographer and script supervisor on Ron Howard’s first film, eventually finding her way into a job in editing.  After getting married to Bennett Tramer, the head writer on Saved by the Bell, Sones quit her job to raise her daughter and started a hand-painted baby clothes company.

Needing something else to satisfy her creative urges after the birth of her son, she decided to try writing books for children.  Her first book was a rhymed picture book called Smitty the Hollywood Kitty, which Sones says had wonderful illustrations, but the words were awful.  Realizing that she had a lot to learn, she enrolled in a poetry class at UCLA and wrote her first book, Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy. (information from author’s website: http://www.sonyasones.com/about/about01.html)

Genre

Young Adult – Drama/Romance

Curriculum Ties

English - Reading Comprehension and Literary Response and Analysis

Booktalking Ideas

1. Focus on Robin and Sophie’s relationship.

2. Discuss the bullying that Sophie experiences by entering a relationship with Robin.

3. Talk about Robin’s experience at his Harvard drawing class.

4. Address the ups and downs of first love.

Reading Level/Interest Age

13+

Challenge Issues

The novel has a few brief scenes of teen sexuality.

When confronted with complaints about this novel, librarians should become familiar with the material and its content.  Turn to reviews from publications such as Publisher’s Weekly, School Library Journal, and Booklist, as well as reviews from teens that have read it.  Also, it is beneficial for librarians to present reasons backed by the ALA in support of intellectual freedom.  As stated in the Library Bill of Rights:

I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

Why Include Book in Selection? 

I was browsing through the racks at the library and picked up this novel.  After reading the recommendation by Meg Cabot on the cover and seeing that the author wrote it in free verse, I was interested in including it for this project.