81 pages • 2 hours read
Virginia Euwer WolffMake Lemonade
Virginia Euwer WolffFiction | Novel/Book in Verse | YA | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
CHAPTERS 1-22
Reading Check
1. What job does LaVaughn discover on her school’s job board?
2. How old is Jolly?
3. What do LaVaughn and Jeremy plant?
4. When Jolly comes home hurt, whom does LaVaughn call?
5. How did LaVaughn’s father die?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does LaVaughn describe Jolly’s apartment?
2. When LaVaughn first tells her mother she wants to go to college, how does her mom react?
3. Why does LaVaughn take the job at Jolly’s?
4. Why is LaVaughn’s mother concerned about LaVaughn’s job?
5. When Jeremy cuts Jilly’s hair, what is Lavaughn’s reaction and what does it reveal about her?
Paired Resource
Impact of Rising Heat in US Cities
- NPR’s article includes visuals and an 8-minute audio version examining one hardship in the inner city for people whose incomes are below the federal poverty threshold: intense heat. (Content Warning: This resource uses an insensitive term to refer to those coming from a low-income background.)
- Theme connections include The Challenges Faced by Teen Mothers and Coming of Age in the Inner City.
- How could intense heat compound Jolly’s struggles?
“Raising Children as a Teenage Parent”
- In this resource, Raisingchildren.net.au presents information about parenting, focusing on some of the unique challenges younger parents might face.
- Theme connections include The Challenges Faced by Teen Mothers and Redefining the Idea of Family.
- What needs discussed in the resource does Jolly encounter as a teenage parent?
CHAPTERS 23-44
Reading Check
1. Why does Jolly refuse welfare?
2. How much do Jeremy’s new shoes cost?
3. What class does LaVaughn take Jolly to?
4. What program does Jolly join to help her attend school and get childcare?
5. When LaVaughn’s teacher notices she is doing better in school again, which classes does she recommend?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What happens when Jolly reports her boss’s assault and unjust firing of her? What does this represent regarding Jolly’s struggles?
2. When Jolly asks to use the money LaVaughn earned babysitting, how does LaVaughn respond? How does LaVaughn feel later?
3. What does LaVaughn mean when she refers to her mother as “big”?
4. What disagreement do Jolly and LaVaughn have over the lemon seed?
5. How does LaVaughn help get Jolly back in school?
Paired Resource
“Expanding Definitions of Family in Federal Laws”
- This report from the Center for American Progress includes background about how families are represented in American laws and statutes and discussion of family definitions shifting and the importance of the laws shifting as well. Excerpts of the document could be used; the first section or Figure 1 might stand alone.
- Theme connection includes Redefining the Idea of Family.
- What different families does the novel reveal? How does this resource reflect the differences in thinking about the definition of family in modern times compared to 30 years ago, in the time of the novel’s publication?
CHAPTERS 45-66
Reading Check
1. What causes Jolly to miss school?
2. When the Moms Up program suggests a Home Care Helper to help Jolly watch the children so that she can complete homework, who recommends LaVaughn?
3. For how long has Jolly been unable to pay rent?
4. Who is Gram?
5. Where does Jolly learn CPR?
6. How does Jeremy help save his sister’s life?
7. What does Jolly tell LaVaughn in the school hallway at the end of the novel?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What do Jolly and LaVaughn fight about, and how do they make up?
2. Why do Jeremy’s and his mother’s feelings about his glasses differ?
3. When writing a letter for an assignment, how does Jolly demonstrate she is changing?
4. What does Jolly’s reaction about the lemonade story she heard at her Parent Skills class reveal about her?
5. When Jilly chokes on a toy, how does Jolly react?
Paired Resource
“At This Texas School, Every Student Is a Teen Mother”
- This BBC article presents a school reimagined to support adolescents and their children.
- Theme connections include The Challenges Faced by Teen Mothers and Redefining the Idea of Family.
- How does this school in the article compare with the school program Jolly attends?
Recommended Next Reads
Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
- Claudia and Monday are best friends. When Monday disappears, Claudia will not stop until she finds her. Her search forces a community and nation to examine racism, low-income impacts on families, and gentrification.
- Shared themes include The Challenges Faced by Teen Mothers, Coming of Age in the Inner City, and Redefining the Idea of Family.
- Shared topics include the impacts of income below the federal poverty level, family, racism, school, violence, growing up, dreams, and friendship.
- Monday’s Not Coming on SuperSummary
Concrete Kids by Amyra León; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
- In verse, Amyra León paints vivid scenes about growing up in Harlem.
- Shared themes include Coming of Age in the Inner City and Redefining the Idea of Family.
- Shared topics include racism, family, growing up, hope, systemic inequality, home, and dreams.
Reading Questions Answer Key
CHAPTERS 1-22
Reading Check
1. Babysitting (Chapter 2)
2. 17 (Chapter 3)
3. Lemon seeds (Chapter 11)
4. LaVaughn’s mother (Chapters 15-16)
5. LaVaughn’s father was shot while playing basketball. (Chapter 22)
Short Answer
1. LaVaughn describes Jolly’s apartment as, “even a worse place than where we live” (Chapter 3). She elaborates that it is “smelly”; she sees food smeared and rotting, cockroaches, and other signs of disrepair. (Chapters 1-22)
2. LaVaughn’s mother says no one in the family or their whole building had been to college, that it would take a lot of work and money, yet it is possible; in her words, “[S]omebody got to be the first, right?” She begins a college fund for LaVaughn. (Chapter 4)
3. LaVaughn recognizes she needs money to realize her dream of going to college, so she goes to meet Jolly. She is appalled by the state of the apartment, but Jeremy grabs her hand, and she starts to feel a connection to him, which helps to persuade her to take the job. (Chapters 3-6)
4. LaVaughn’s mother is worried that Jolly may be a bad influence on LaVaughn. She also sees the time it takes away from LaVaughn’s school work. (Chapters 12-19)
5. LaVaughn yells and considers reprimanding Jeremy physically when he cuts Jilly’s hair, but she stops herself and counts to 20 instead. Then, she takes the children into the kitchen to share a snack. In doing so, LaVaughn reveals she is kind, wise, and controlled in her interactions with children. Not only does she refrain from striking Jeremy, she looks at him and sees why he cut her hair: to stop Jilly from doing the things she shouldn’t do, like the song they have been singing suggests. LaVaughn seeks to understand Jeremy instead of just reacting. (Chapter 21)
CHAPTERS 23-44
Reading Check
1. Jolly is afraid that if she accepts welfare, people will take her children. (Chapter 27)
2. As much as LaVaughn earns for six hours of babysitting (Chapter 31)
3. Steam class, a class about fostering one’s self-esteem (Chapter 34)
4. The Moms Up program (Chapter 43)
5. Leadership Class, Financial Aid Seminar, and Grammar Build-Up (Chapter 44)
Short Answer
1. Nothing happens. Jolly calls multiple times and is not allowed to talk to the people in charge; consequently, she is not rehired, and there are no repercussions for her former boss. This situation represents deep injustices in society in which people in power often do not care about others and can get away with crimes and unfair treatment. (Chapters 23-24)
2. LaVaughn says, “That won’t help” (Chapter 25), showing she will not jeopardize her future for Jolly. Later, LaVaughn feels guilty for denying Jolly, revealing her level of concern and that she is very reflective. (Chapters 25-26)
3. LaVaughn explains her mother is not physically large; rather, she is shouldering the world for her daughter. LaVaughn talks about how her mother became this way after her father died, and LaVaughn recognizes her mother’s strength. (Chapter 32)
4. Jolly wants to plant the new seeds and not tell Jeremy the old ones never grew, but LaVaughn thinks that would be wrong and that they should tell him the truth. (Chapter 36)
5. LaVaughn speaks to a teacher about Jolly; calls Barbara, the Moms Up Program representative, for Jolly when Jolly will not; gets Jolly on a call with Barbara about the program; and helps Jolly fill out the form. (Chapters 38-44)
CHAPTERS 45-66
Reading Check
1. Jeremy gets chicken pox. (Chapter 46)
2. Jolly (Chapter 47)
3. 3 months (Chapter 54)
4. Jolly’s foster care mother, who was loving and has passed away (Chapter 56)
5. In her swimming class as part of the Moms Up Program (Chapter 57)
6. Jeremy helps dial 9-1-1. (Chapters 63-64)
7. The lemon seeds have sprouted. (Chapter 66)
Short Answer
1. LaVaughn points out Jolly is not following through on things, and asks if Jolly if she treated birth control as a “part way is good enough” choice as well. Jolly responds by saying LaVaughn acts stuck up and better than her. They make amends almost immediately, hugging and crying and then laughing about a story together. (Chapter 49)
2. Jeremy is very young and motivated by wanting his freedom from the glasses and wanting the glasses because they are his. Jolly is concerned with having another thing to worry about: Jeremy’s eyesight. She is also worried about the financial aspect. Jeremy is protective of his glasses, calling them “Gas.” Sometimes, however, he forgets where they are or does not want to put them on. Jolly is overwhelmed by having to get the glasses, then indignant that Public Assistance pays for them, because she adamantly refuses welfare. (Chapters 51-52)
3. When LaVaughn points out a mistake, instead of being angry, Jolly stops and calmly rewrites the letter. LaVaughn sees her new focus, wanting to cheer. (Chapter 54)
4. Jolly is excited to share her story about the lemons, showing her connection to LaVaughn. In retelling the story, Jolly also demonstrates she has been paying close attention in her classes. Connecting to the story about overcoming challenges also reveals her hope. (Chapter 59)
5. Jolly immediately jumps into action to save her daughter. She uses safety skills to try to help Jilly stop choking, breathes for her when she stops, checks her pulse, and performs CPR when Jilly’s heart stops. She also tells LaVaughn to call 9-1-1. Her actions show that she has learned a great deal, and she saves her daughter’s life. During the process, she also whispers, “Breathe,” desperate for her daughter to survive, demonstrating her love for Jilly. (Chapter 63)
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