Nothing But the Truth (and a Few White Lies)

by Justina Chen and Justina Chen Headley

Book Overview

DESCRIPTION: Hapa (Half Asian and half white) Patty Ho has never felt completely at home in her skin. Life at House Ho is tough enough between her ultra-strict Taiwanese mom (epic-length lectures and all) and her Harvard-bound big brother. But things get worse when a Chinese fortuneteller channels Patty's future via her bellybutton...and divines a white guy on her horizon. Her mom then freaks out and ships her off to math camp at Stanford. Just as...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316011282
• ISBN13: 9780316011280
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Length: 241 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

Classic coming-of-age story, with a twist

I had the chance to talk to Justina Chen Headley briefly before she gave a reading from Nothing But the Truth (and a Few White Lies). She was very cool, grounded and an absolute pleasure to talk to. So, it should be no surprise that her narrator, Patty Ho, is equally enjoyable in every way in Headley's first novel written for young adults. Half-Taiwanese and half-white, Patty feels like she doesn't belong anywhere. This fact is confirmed when, instead of going to the last school dance of the year, Patty's mother drags her to a fortune teller who discerns Patty's future from her belly button. Things get worse from there when Patty realizes that sometimes dream guys are anything but and finds herself enrolled in Stanford math camp for the summer. This novel is a classic coming-of-age story. As the plot progresses, Patty learns that sometimes you have to find people like you in order to appreciate the value of being really unique. Now, that might sound a bit pat and cliche--but I can assure you this book is anything but. Headley writes with a style unlike any authors I've read recently. The narration is snappy and spunky--as is fitting for a teenage girl as vibrant as Patty. I also like that Headley doesn't take the easy way a lot of the time. The story doesn't follow any typical girl-meets-boy formula. In fact, Headley has quite a few twists thrown in along the way. It's also really interesting to read about Patty and her mother. The subject doesn't often come up in teen literature, where often the characters are immigrants if they are not white. Headley's dialog between Patty and her mother seems realistic (not being Taiwanese at all I can't really say). Her incorporation of slang and certain speech mannerisms bring to mind Amy Tan's writing in The Hundred Secret Senses (another book about a half-asian, half-white character, incidentally). Honestly though, everything in the book is interesting. Even math camp, which some readers will view as warily as Patty does in the beginning, turns out to be a cool environment to read about (with minimal time spent on math in the narrative). In a lot of reviews you'll see me complaining that the characters come off as flat. Happily, I can say that is not the case here. Patty and her myriad friends (and enemies too) jump off the page. Furthermore, Headley artfully negotiates Patty's changing sense of self throughout the novel. It's weird to be saying this about a novel that isn't a thriller, but it was really a page turner. I couldn't put it down. Headley has a lot to say here about identity and family and self-confidence. All of which she manages like a pro. The term "new classic" is bandied about a lot for modern books and movies. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Nothing But the Truth is going to get that label if it doesn't have it already.

A Joy to Read

Nothing but the Truth is about fifteen-year-old Patty Ho, daughter of a controlling Taiwanese mother and a long-absent American father. Patty struggles to find her place in a world where she's not fully Asian, but not fully white, confronting both egregious and subtle prejudices from both sides. She also struggles with something I could personally relate to, being good at math, but also wanting to write. Her struggles come to a head when her mother sends her to Stanford for the summer for math camp (a month-long program for gifted high school students). While there she encounters humiliation and heartbreak, but also gains self-confidence, friends, and insight into her own family history. Nothing but the Truth is a joy to read. Patty practically leaps forth from the page, fully three-dimensional. I refuse to believe that she isn't real. Every paragraph reveals something about her, or her family, or what it's like to be hapa (the Hawaiian word for someone who is half-white and half-Asian). Her mother, with her strengths and weaknesses, temper tantrums and quirks, feels real, too. Life at Stanford during summer session is also fully realized - the book is chock full of insider information about the university. I particularly enjoyed the writing style in this book. Humorous, yet lyrical, and dripping with (frequently Asian-tinged) metaphors, and the angst of a teenage girl. For example: "Mama breathes in sharply. She must be smelling my exasperation polluting the air. (page 13)" ""O-kayyy." Anne drags out the last syllable as if it's a hoe, raking through the intractable soil of my rudeness. (page 76)" "I'm here because I don't want to be up in the Pacific Northwest where it's always overcast with disappointment and showering anger. (page 108)" "Under the Dish that scans planets and distant galaxies, I know that the world -- the universe -- is bigger than high school and Mark Scranton and Steve Kosanko and their edamame-bean brains. That it's bigger than Mama and math camp. That maybe I am Zebra-woman, trapped behind black-and-white bars of my own making. (page 110)" Despite the tremendous depth and authenticity that Justina Chen Headley brings to her hapa and Asian characters, this is a book that will resonate with teenage girls from all sorts of backgrounds. Because what it's really about (as is clear from Patty's essay at the end of the book) is the struggle to balance the conflicts in yourself, whatever they are, and find your place in the world. This makes it a perfect first book for the readergirlz discussion group, focused on celebrating gutsy girls in life and literature. An example of Patty's place as a gutsy girl is this passage, in which she muses about facing down her fears. Is attitude truly the only thing separating embarrassment from triumph? That a little sass could turn you from a social zero to a social hero? (page 174) I highly recommend this book for anyone who revels in reading about strong girls. A slightly longer ver

True Through and Through

Patty doesn't think she fits in anywhere, not even in her own family. She has a strict Taiwanese mother, an absentee white father and a college-bound older brother. As far as she can see, the scoreboard reads world = 100, Patty = 0. She is dragged with her mother to meet a fortune teller who reads her belly button (!) while everyone else is rocking out at the high school dance. She has to go to math camp while everyone else has fun summer plans. In other words, everyone else wins at life, while Patty comes up empty. Patty's story is not just for hapas - read the book to discover the definition! - and not only for biracial teens. It has many levels of appeal. I recommend Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies) by Justina Chen Headley to a wide variety of people - both genders, various races, all thoughtful teens, and all astute adults, especially parents. This is a story for anyone who has wondered about an absent parent or struggled with a strict parent. This is for the smart kids who wonder why their parents keep testing them and making them prove themselves. This is for the kids who look different from their classmates on the outside or simply feel different on the inside. This is for anyone who considered his or her own personal secrets, lies, and truths. Highly recommended.

Great book!

Patty Ho wishes she were different. Actually, she wishes she were just like everyone else. Half-Taiwanese and half-white, she's not the same as anyone else. She's not smart enough for her über-strict mom, especially since her older brother is Harvard-bound. Her house isn't American enough for her friends-- who cares about feng shui? And she's never been able to escape jokes about her last name, ranging from Santa Claus to whores. In short, Patty can't get anything right -- even a Truth assignment! What could be simpler than the truth? After an unfortunate proclamation from a belly-button fortune teller that Patty is destined for a white guy (not her mother's idea of a Good One), she's shipped off to math camp at Stanford. Patty kicks up her heels at first, but once she gets there she learns a few big lessons. First, that math is not just for geeks anymore. Second, that there are worse things than being half-and-half. And third, that the truth is not quite so simple after all. No matter what race(s) you are, Patty is a believable, lovable character, and her story will ring true with everyone who reads it. And that's the truth.