Gr. 5-8. Holly Lawrence-Jones has two moms. She and her younger brother, Will, are both adopted. When the family moves from New York City to a comfortable small town in western Massachusetts, and Holly starts seventh grade, she decides not to tell anyone that her parents are lesbians, and she reinvents herself as "Yvette," part of a "normal" family. Her mothers reluctantly go along with the cover-up, though Holly can see that they are hurt. Eventually her uncomfortable secret unravels, but even as the class bully and bigot exposes "Yvette," Holly makes friends, finds a boyfriend, and recognizes how lucky she is to have a stable, loving home. Occasionally, there's an uncomfortably defensive note (Holly worries that she may be gay, though she's read that children of gay parents are not more likely to be gay). But readers will welcome the honesty about Holly's difficulties, and the message against bigotry and lies is loud and clear: when her mean classmate talks about "fags" and "dykes," Holly knows that those words are as hateful as "nigger." Most eloquent is the picture of Holly's warm family; her parents love each other and are there for their children. Hazel Rochman
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From Kirkus Reviews
Garden (The Year They Burned the Books, 1999, etc.) again traverses scantly explored territory with this earnest tale of an adopted child who tries to cover up the fact that her two moms are gay. Upset after an episode of ostracism at summer camp, Holly decides to take advantage of a move to create a new persona for herself: "Yvette," sophisticated, non-athletic, fond of ruffles and boys, above all, with a normal family. Her hurt but loving parents agree to go along with the deception, at least when her new friends are around. But what with the domestic tension, the complicated web of lies she has to concoct, plus the self-inflicted pressure to fit in, to keep silent when she hears casually malicious references to dykes and fag hags, from the outset she doesn't much like what she's becoming. That web comes apart eventually, but after tears and confessions Holly discovers that her true friends are untroubled by her home arrangements. As the characters here tend to model appropriate or inappropriate behavior and to express or correct misinformation, Garden's agenda is never far from the surface. Still, while getting a good look at a close, stable, gay household, readers will understand the source of Holly's conflicting feelings, and feel her relief at the end. (Fiction. 10-12) -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
"Holly Lawrence-Jones has two moms . . . Readers will welcome the honesty about Holly's difficulties, and the message against bigotry and lies is loud and clear . . . Most eloquent is the picture of Holly's warm family."-Booklist
About the Author
Nancy Garden is the author of numerous books for children and young adults, including Annie on My Mind and, more recently, The Year They Burned the Books, which Booklist called "an important book that deserves a wide readership." She lives in Carlisle, Massachusetts.
