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Holly's Secret
A new town and new classmates, but the same family -- with two moms
Dear Diary,
...Until today I was Holly Lawrence-Jones. But starting tomorrow I'm going to be Yvette Lawrence-Jones. My family doesn't know that yet, but I'll tell them tomorrow, and that's the name I'll tell the people at school, too. Yvette's going to be sophisticated and grownup-feminine enough to have white ruffled curtains, and maybe even a boyfriend. She's also going to have a NORMAL family. Kids are not going to make jokes about her and say mean things, because there won't be any reason for them to do that...
The reason for "The Plan," as Holly refers to the creation of her new self, is primarily to hide from the schoolmates in her new hometown the fact that she has two mothers who are gay. But trying to hide something so big proves to be a daunting task. Nancy Garden has written a novel infused with humor, but one that also tackles prejudice and reinforces an old Honesty is the best policy.
Dear Diary,
...Until today I was Holly Lawrence-Jones. But starting tomorrow I'm going to be Yvette Lawrence-Jones. My family doesn't know that yet, but I'll tell them tomorrow, and that's the name I'll tell the people at school, too. Yvette's going to be sophisticated and grownup-feminine enough to have white ruffled curtains, and maybe even a boyfriend. She's also going to have a NORMAL family. Kids are not going to make jokes about her and say mean things, because there won't be any reason for them to do that...
The reason for "The Plan," as Holly refers to the creation of her new self, is primarily to hide from the schoolmates in her new hometown the fact that she has two mothers who are gay. But trying to hide something so big proves to be a daunting task. Nancy Garden has written a novel infused with humor, but one that also tackles prejudice and reinforces an old Honesty is the best policy.
132 pages, Hardcover
First published September 25, 2000
1 person is currently reading
257 people want to read
About the author
Nancy Garden
44 books452 followersA versatile writer, Nancy Garden has published books for children as well as for teens, nonfiction as well as fiction. But her novel Annie on My Mind, the story of two high school girls who fall in love with each other, has brought her more attention than she wanted when it was burned in front of the Kansas City School Board building in 1993 and banned from school library shelves in Olathe, Kansas, as well as other school districts. A group of high school students and their parents in Olathe had to sue the school board in federal district court in order to get the book back on the library shelves. Today the book is as controversial as ever, in spite of its being viewed by many as one of the most important books written for teens in the past forty years. In 2003 the American Library Association gave the Margaret A. Edwards Award to Nancy Garden for lifetime achievement.
In Remembrance: Nancy Garden
In Remembrance: Nancy Garden
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 11, 2014
Story-wise, this is very similar to Garden's picture book, Molly's Family. Each centers around a young girl (Molly is in kindergarten, Holly is in middle school) with two moms who wants to hide her non-traditional family from her classmates after her family make-up is ridiculed. In the end, both children accept that they need not hide or be ashamed of having two mothers.
In an interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith, Garden explained that her inspiration came from the problems experienced by the children raised by some of her gay and lesbian friends: "Despite the fact that more and more children are now being born into and adopted by gay and lesbian couples, there are still very few books about and for those children. Although we like to think children raised by gay and lesbian couples don't have any problems stemming from their "different" families, in truth, they are as subject to misunderstanding, teasing and bigotry as are other minority children. When close friends of ours adopted a baby and, a year and a half later, another, I wanted to write a book that might help those two kids and their friends understand and value their special family as they grew up."
In an interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith, Garden explained that her inspiration came from the problems experienced by the children raised by some of her gay and lesbian friends: "Despite the fact that more and more children are now being born into and adopted by gay and lesbian couples, there are still very few books about and for those children. Although we like to think children raised by gay and lesbian couples don't have any problems stemming from their "different" families, in truth, they are as subject to misunderstanding, teasing and bigotry as are other minority children. When close friends of ours adopted a baby and, a year and a half later, another, I wanted to write a book that might help those two kids and their friends understand and value their special family as they grew up."
January 29, 2016
Holly is a 12-year-old girl. She has just moved to a new town with her mother and her female partner. KJ is her mother's partner; Will is her nine-year-old brother.
Holly is going to secretly change her name to Yvette, part of a Plan to keep other children from finding out that both her parents are women.
It's quickly obvious that Holly has been teased and worse by other students because of her mother living with another woman. Holly is almost 12. Her mother is a lawyer, and KJ is a nurse. Both Holly and Will are adopted.
Holly starts off the first day by telling various lies to her classmates. Later, at the mall, Julia, one of the girls that Holly meets, keeps referring to certain boys as “faggy” looking.
Later Holly refers to KJ as her aunt. Her mother and KJ talk to her and she tells them she doesn't want other kids to know about their relationship.
Julie continues her anti-gay statements.
Holly makes friends with a boy and finds out Julie also hates blacks.
Her mother gets angry when Holly starts telling her and KJ all the things not to do when some friends of hers come over the next day.
The visit is a disaster as Julia snoops into rooms and finds out KJ and Holly's mother are lesbians. Holly then has to decide whether or not to continue her fake identity plan, or to return to being Holly and drop all the efforts at hiding her mother and KJ's relationship.
A good book, very tastefully done.
Holly is going to secretly change her name to Yvette, part of a Plan to keep other children from finding out that both her parents are women.
It's quickly obvious that Holly has been teased and worse by other students because of her mother living with another woman. Holly is almost 12. Her mother is a lawyer, and KJ is a nurse. Both Holly and Will are adopted.
Holly starts off the first day by telling various lies to her classmates. Later, at the mall, Julia, one of the girls that Holly meets, keeps referring to certain boys as “faggy” looking.
Later Holly refers to KJ as her aunt. Her mother and KJ talk to her and she tells them she doesn't want other kids to know about their relationship.
Julie continues her anti-gay statements.
Holly makes friends with a boy and finds out Julie also hates blacks.
Her mother gets angry when Holly starts telling her and KJ all the things not to do when some friends of hers come over the next day.
The visit is a disaster as Julia snoops into rooms and finds out KJ and Holly's mother are lesbians. Holly then has to decide whether or not to continue her fake identity plan, or to return to being Holly and drop all the efforts at hiding her mother and KJ's relationship.
A good book, very tastefully done.
March 30, 2007
A seventh-grade girl has just moved to a new school and takes the opportunity to reinvent herself—including pretending she doesn’t have two moms. But how to keep up the charade? And both moms are hurt when Holly pretends one is just an aunt. It was good enough, I guess, but I’m having a really hard time reconciling this (frankly) kind of bland, weakly-written novel (published in 2000) with the wonderful Annie on My Mind from almost 20 years earlier. Annie had so much heart to it, with sharp writing that rang true to the ear. I honestly thought Holly’s Secret must’ve been published first—it has a lot of problems with rough, stilted dialogue and stereotyped characters (Understanding former Fat Girl, Follower, and Queen Bee), and the activities of seventh-graders in suburban/rural Massachusetts seems so hopelessly out of touch. But no, it’s just preachy and bland.
April 5, 2011
Average story. Girl is afraid she won't make friends because of her two moms, so she lies about herself and her family. Eventually she ends up figuring out who her real friends are when she tells the truth. A plot used over and over in middle grade -- I'm hardly impressed. Although I do appreciate the fact that this matter is being addressed without it being made into such a HUGE deal that this girl has two moms. Also, I'm glad that this girl is more than a stickfigure -- she has doubts and flaws like all of us.
May 13, 2011
I like this story about a young girl who moves to a new town and decides to create a new life for herself which includes a new name, a new personality, and a new set of parents. Holly learn, with the help from her two moms that lying doesn't work and not being true to oneself is no way to live
September 25, 2016
A book I read with my daughter about a girl growing up in a two-mom family. With her move out of the big city, Holly struggles with having a different family from all her new friends. This book realistically captures and recognizes how older kids feel about fitting in and trying to be themselves.
May 18, 2017
An interesting story of a girl whose secret is that her parents are two women.
August 18, 2008
This book was rele good
May 11, 2012
I thought this was a really good book and I'm almost 19!
March 20, 2016
My 14 year old cousin made me read this book. It is a young adult book about a child in middle school who has two moms and the lies she tells to cover it up, so not to be teased at school.
November 14, 2018
This book was on the ALA website, that wants to inform the public about censorship efforts that affect libraries and schools. This book is said to be recommended ages 8-12 years old. The reasons I found for this book being banned was because of prejudices, lying, and LGBT parents. There were no many reasons given to why this book was pronounced banned. A lot of the time books that include any LGBT people in them get banned because of a complaint from a parent.
There were a few reasons that I found for why this book was banned. For one they used lot of disrespectful slurs. A teacher would not be able to read this allowed to a class because there was too many. People who were gay were referred to as very inappropriate words. Another reason was because the book revolved around a lie. Yes, the end of the story revealed a great message to its readers but, the idea of Hollys lie did not send out a good message. This sent out the message that you should hide who you are to get others to like you. When Holly asked her mothers to take off their rings, I even got mad. Also, when holly wrote in her journal she would talk about her body and how it was no perfect. I think this sends out a bad message to girls. The biggest reason this book was challenged was because of the biases towards the LGBT community. I felt that the way they were judged was showed correctly through this book. People do treat their community like how they did in the book but, I think children may not understand this and if a teacher were to read this it could even increase biases. Overall, there were reasons this book should be banned.
However, I loved the message of this book. Also, I loved how positive the author portrayed their family. Personally, I would not read this allowed to my class because of the prejudice slurs. There is truly no way around those words in this book. This book is recommended to ages 8 through 12 but, I would go older. I would say 8th grade and up because of the word usage. Not only that, but I do not feel the message would get through to children that young. This would be for them to read independently not as a class. Do not get me wrong I really enjoyed this book and read it in one day but, it is just not appropriate for a class. For our class I strongly recommend it, although it is a chapter book you will be very interested.
There were a few reasons that I found for why this book was banned. For one they used lot of disrespectful slurs. A teacher would not be able to read this allowed to a class because there was too many. People who were gay were referred to as very inappropriate words. Another reason was because the book revolved around a lie. Yes, the end of the story revealed a great message to its readers but, the idea of Hollys lie did not send out a good message. This sent out the message that you should hide who you are to get others to like you. When Holly asked her mothers to take off their rings, I even got mad. Also, when holly wrote in her journal she would talk about her body and how it was no perfect. I think this sends out a bad message to girls. The biggest reason this book was challenged was because of the biases towards the LGBT community. I felt that the way they were judged was showed correctly through this book. People do treat their community like how they did in the book but, I think children may not understand this and if a teacher were to read this it could even increase biases. Overall, there were reasons this book should be banned.
However, I loved the message of this book. Also, I loved how positive the author portrayed their family. Personally, I would not read this allowed to my class because of the prejudice slurs. There is truly no way around those words in this book. This book is recommended to ages 8 through 12 but, I would go older. I would say 8th grade and up because of the word usage. Not only that, but I do not feel the message would get through to children that young. This would be for them to read independently not as a class. Do not get me wrong I really enjoyed this book and read it in one day but, it is just not appropriate for a class. For our class I strongly recommend it, although it is a chapter book you will be very interested.
February 18, 2020
Holly is twelve and going into the seventh grade. She also changing identities and wants to be called Yvette and keep the fact that her Moms aren't really gay and in love. That she wasn't adopted at practically birth and been loved by two parents, who just happen to be gay.
So she males friends under this new identity and soon it just hard to keep up the act. The act of being trying to hide her real family status as well as keep up a persona that just isn't hers. Will she keep her secret or be buried by lies.
This book is short, 132 pages total, so it is a quick read. I liked the pacing and flow of the text. Appropriate for the age demographic that this book is geared for in its target audience. The only downside of this was that some things were just dull. The fact that Holly new found friend group was just so stereotypical was an eye roll but stereotypes happen for a reason as well as the ending. That did make my eye roll. But overall I loved the book.
So she males friends under this new identity and soon it just hard to keep up the act. The act of being trying to hide her real family status as well as keep up a persona that just isn't hers. Will she keep her secret or be buried by lies.
This book is short, 132 pages total, so it is a quick read. I liked the pacing and flow of the text. Appropriate for the age demographic that this book is geared for in its target audience. The only downside of this was that some things were just dull. The fact that Holly new found friend group was just so stereotypical was an eye roll but stereotypes happen for a reason as well as the ending. That did make my eye roll. But overall I loved the book.
March 16, 2025
Wonderful early 2000s novella about a preteen girl whose moms are lesbians. They're moving to a new town and Holly wants to start using a new name and identity to fit in with the new preppy suburban kids in her school, including a boy she has a crush on. Holly doesn't want to hurt her moms' feelings, but she wants to be a normal girl. It's a hard road for a kid to take, but Nancy Garden's book addresses it head-on with no stereotypes or negative falsehoods. I like too that the book doesn't portray any sexual deviance. It's a negative stereotype about LGBTQ+ parents and modern literature seems to latch onto it instead of trying to get away from it. Holly's moms love each other and they're romantic but never in a creepy or overtly sexual way. It's one of the more accurate fiction titles on the subject and one that I'd still recommend for classrooms today.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews