One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies » (Reprint)

SONYA SONES has written four novels-in-verse: Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy, What My Mother Doesn't Know, One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies, and its companion, What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know. Her books have been honored with a Christopher Award, the Myra Cohn Livingston Poetry Award, and the Claudia Lewis Award for Poetry. But the coolest honor she ever got was when What My Mother Doesn't Know made it onto the ALA’s list of Top Ten Most Challenged Books, twice. She lives near the beach in California. You can find out way more than you ever wanted to know about her at www.sonyasones.com.

My name is Ruby.

This book is about me.

It tells the deeply hideous story

of what happens when my mother dies

and I'm dragged three thousand miles away

from my gorgeous boyfriend, Ray,

to live in L.A. with my father,

who I've never even met

because he's such a scumbag that he

divorced my mom before I was born.

The only way I've ever even seen him

is in the movies,

since he's this megafamous actor

who's been way too busy

trying to win Oscars

to even visit me once in fifteen years.

Everyone loves my father.

Everyone but me.

Publishers Weekly

PW called this story of a 15-year-old who must move from Boston to L.A. after her mother's untimely death a "winning portrayal of a teenage girl's loves and losses." Ages 12-up. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.