Nothing But the Truth (and a Few White Lies)

Reader reviewed by DC Duke B Ball 4 Life

Reader reviewed by Stephanie

Half-white, half-Asian Patty Ho has never felt complete. Her white friends always joke about her crazy Taiwanese mother's ways, and Patty shuns the company of the goodie-goodie Anne Wong, the only other Asian girl at her school. But worst of all in Patty's life is her mother, who's a five-foot-tall, traditional, wary, embarrassing Mom-inator, complete with foreign accent. Mom's worst regret is marrying Patty and her older brother Abe's (oh, did we mention that beloved Abe is going to Harvard?) father, who disappeared mysteriously when Patty was 2. No one ever talks about him.

When a bellybutton fortune reading reveals that Patty will marry a white man, her mother freaks out and ships her off to math camp at Stanford along with Anne. But Palo Alto, California is a lot different than Washington State. There a millions of Asian guys (which ought to make Patty's mom happy, as she wants her daughter to marry a rich Taiwanese man). There's Stu, for example, who's hot, Chinese, AND thinks hapas are cute. And Patty is slowly beginning to learn to love being "the best of both worlds."

Of course, there's still her crazy worrywart mother to ruin her summer... but what turns out to be heartbreak and humiliation may reveal clues about her mother's past that Patty never knew.

Justina Chen Headley takes readers through every aspect of Patty's emotional understanding of herself. With plenty of self-deprecating humor and Asian references, this book accurately depicts the confusing life of a hapa, and how she learns to love herself for who she is... no lies.

Reader reviewed by Dominique

Fifteen-year-old Patty Ho does not feel comfortable in her own skin. She’s half Taiwanese and half white and doesn’t like being stuck in the middle, looking neither pure white nor pure Asian. She lives with her brother and mother, but her father left them when Patty was still very young. Her mother wants Patty to grow up to be successful and to marry a Taiwanese guy and settle down. However, her mother is less than pleased when “belly-button Grandmother” (who, you guessed it, reads people’s futures through their belly-buttons) predicts Patty ending up with a white guy. Her mother cannot speak very good English, is very strict, and sends Patty to Stanford Math Camp for the summer.

Patty, who is very good at math (and even writes proofs on her problems and life!), is surprised when she find out how much fun math camp really is. Her spirited new friends show her that being HAPA (half Asian and half white) background isn’t bad at all. They celebrate it, and many find it exotic. By the end of the summer Patty goes from quiet and insecure to bold and confident. No one can bring this chick down!

Join Patty and friends in her witty adventure in finding herself and being proud of her background instead of being ashamed! Funny and clever Patty has a truly unforgettable summer that will change her life forever!

Reader reviewed by safia

Patty Ho seems to have the worst luck of all. She's half Asian and half white, but not Asian enough to fit in with the other Asian girls and not white enough to avoid bullying from Steve Kosanko, school-wide jerk and racist pig. Her mother (good at embarrassing) is constantly pushing at Patty to do better and is in competition with the other Asian moms over their kids. Patty is tall, gawky, and has a brother ready to go to Harvard. Can life get any worse?
Yes, it does when Patty learns she is being sent out to math camp over the summer. Can she deal?

In this story Patty is about to discover many truths about her family and mostly herself. She tells it all (nothing but the truth--and a few white lies) with humor, wit, and charm.

Reader reviewed by Jocelyn

I'm not half Asian, but I am something of a math geek (and one who's not particularly fond of math all the time, like Patty), and, even if you're neither one of those things, you'll be able to relate to this awesome book.

To start the book out, Patty is dragged by her tyrannical Taiwanese mother to a fortune teller who reads not palms, but belly-buttons. This fortune teller predicts, among other things, that there will be a white guy in Patty's future--something that really sets her mother off. Patty is promptly shipped off to Stanford math camp, where, besides math, she has one other school assignment to do. She has to rewrite the "truth statement" about herself that she turned in at the end of the last school year.

Through all of her adventures, including "buildering" (rock-climbing on buildings) with her new friend Jasmine, meeting her Auntie Lu and learning some surprising things about her mother, meeting an Asian guy who STILL isn't what her mother wants for her, and finding out her goody-two-shoes classmate, Anne, is writing a romance novel, Patty learns a lot about herself. She learns even more about herself than she does about other people, which definitely helps a lot with her truth statement.

I really loved this book. It was funny and real, with a main character who speaks to all teenage girls. I definitely reccomend it--read this book!

Reader reviewed by sara

i love how this book is so easy to relate to.I feel like the main characters are just like me.My favorite thing is how Patty(the main girl) tells everything how it really is.She doesn't try to cover stuff up or make it easier to read about.I think you should read this book so you can hear everything how it really is

Reader reviewed by Val

Nothing But the Truth was hysterical and so truthful at times it stung. Patty Ho the main character spares no details in giving the reader the background of her life. From, living with her jaded first generation Taiwanese mother who insists that her demise came after she disregarded her familys wishes, ran away with a white man who she had two children with and then left. She insists that Patty excel in school and succeed in everything so that one day she can go to a good college and marry a Good One. Whats a Good One? In Pattys mother terms its a Taiwanese doctor, stressing the Taiwanese part. Between her eccentric strict mother and dealing with her HAPA self, (Hawaiian term for someone who is half white half Asian) which she cant see as anything other than weird and uncomfortable, she struggles to come to terms with her biracial self. It is later on when she is forced to go to a math camp at Stanford that she discovers that being biracial isnt about deciding or choosing one side. Its like her math camp roommate Jasmine said, shes lucky because she gets to have the best of both worlds. Patty gives us the truth about Stu, a cute guy at Math Camp, Jasmine, her roommate at Stanford, Her Aunt Lu, Her mother all the while letting us into her world and self. This book was absolutely amazing, a rare find that is completely relatable to. Everyone has felt at one time or another that cant fit in their skin or that their parents are way strict because it was how they were raised. Everyone has heard the lecture seminars before, the ones that go: something along the lines of Your so lucky because& Or how about the ever popular Im so disappointed in you& What makes this book different is that someone is actually writing about it, no sugar coated writing Patty tells it like it is 99.1 percent hence the whole and a few white lies but that why we love her!