Make Lemonade

Jolly is seventeen. She can’t really spell. She doesn’t have much of a job. And she has two little kids from two different, absent fathers. Jolly knows she can’t cope with Jilly and Jeremy all by herself. So she posts a notice on the school ­bulletin board: BABYSITTER NEEDED BAD. No one...

What's new in LaVaughn's life is Jody, a boy she knew as a child who's come back to the housing project where she lives. Jody is like a miracle: he smells like chlorine; he calls her "little buddy;" he goes with her to the dance. It's just as if he's in love with her. Except not quite.

Each discovery disturbs the arrangements of the known world, and it is our job to stay alert to all possibilities. LaVaughn believes she is keeping alert to all possibilities. She has made it through the projects, she’s gotten over heartbreak, she’s grown up, and now she’s been admitted to...