81 pages • 2 hours read
Virginia Euwer WolffA 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.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
In the brief opening chapter of Make Lemonade, 14-year-old narrator LaVaughn tells readers she’s recounting her story “just the way it went,” including the pieces she’s not certain she’s “understood” (3). Comparing the events of the novel to a bird she glimpses only for a moment before it flies off, LaVaughn vows to tell her story “with all the details I remember” (3).
On her school’s job board, LaVaughn sees a flyer reading “BABYSITTER NEEDED BAD” (4). LaVaughn’s mother will allow her to work as long as LaVaughn finishes her homework, which is “a completely required thing/like a vaccination” (4). When LaVaughn calls the number from the ad, the voice on the other end, who introduces herself as Jolly, sounds to LaVaughn like someone who could be a friend: “like we could be friends/right away” (4). LaVaughn arranges to meet Jolly and her children after school.