Lemonade Mouth - Hardcover

Hughes, Mark Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385733925 ISBN 13: 9780385733922

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2007

Synopsis

Poets. Geniuses. Revolutionaries.

The members of the legendary band Lemonade Mouth have been called all of these things. But until now, nobody's known the inside story of how this powerhouse band came to be. How five outcasts in Opoquonsett High School's freshman class found each other, found the music, and went on to change both rock and roll and high school as we know it. Wen, Stella, Charlie, Olivia, and Mo take us back to that fateful detention where a dentist's jingle, a teacher's coughing fit, and a beat-up ukelele gave birth to Rhode Island's most influential band. Told in each of their five voices and compiled by Opoquonsett's "scene queen," freshman Naomi Fishmeier, this anthology is their definitive history.

About this title

Review:

A Letter from Author Mark Peter Hughes
Not long after my second novel, Lemonade Mouth, was published in 2007, I got a strange and unexpected phone call at home from a Hollywood producer named Debra Martin Chase. Debra is the producer who made the movies The Princess Diaries, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and The Cheetah Girls, among many others. As I stood there with the phone to my ear and my jaw hanging open, she told me that she’d read and loved Lemonade Mouth, and that even though she didn’t yet have a deal in place, she was determined to make a movie out of my book.

I couldn’t have been more astonished if it had started raining lemons.

I wrote Lemonade Mouth, the story of five high-school freshman outsiders who meet in detention, form an unlikely band, and start a revolution destined to change the world, because I’ve played in bands and know something about what it’s like. Each member of the band called Lemonade Mouth--Stella, Olivia, Mo (Mohini), Charlie, and Wen--are different parts of me. Stella is a shout-through-a-megaphone rule-breaker who wants to make a positive difference but doesn’t always get it right. That’s me. Olivia is shy and quiet and sometimes has a hard time talking about the important things. That’s me too, sometimes. What Mohini and I share is that we both straddle two different cultures. Mo’s family moved to the U.S. from India, while I was born in England, grew up here in America, and have often felt the crosscurrent like a hot dog floating in a cup of tea.

In the summer of 2010, the Disney Channel started filming its adaptation of my novel (turned out, Debra’s promise of “Determinate”-tion was more than just words), and my family and I were lucky enough to get to visit the set. The filmmakers and cast were warm and welcoming, and I have wonderful memories of those days.

What a surreal experience it was to stand among three hundred extras and watch talented actors perform a concert as characters I had created in my kitchen. At one point, when Hayley Kiyoko (who plays Stella) started calling out to the crowd about how everyone should be nice to each other--a speech that uses my own words and heartfelt convictions--I had a lump in my throat the size of Rhode Island. My wife actually burst into tears. Out of anyone on this planet, she knew best what this meant to me--to all of us.

I’m actually in the movie. I’m an extra in the Halloween Bash scene. Pretty much whenever you see the principal standing in the audience, look over his shoulder and you might notice a guy dressed like a bee. That’s me. It’s just a little thing, but it sure does make me happy.

To all the Lemonheads out there: Be heard! Be strong! Be proud! And keep doing what you love, as I have. You never know what Destiny has in store for you.

--Mark Peter Hughes

About the Author:

Mark Peter Hughes was born in Liverpool, England, and grew up in Barrington, Rhode Island. Mark’s obsession with music has led to many ups and downs. Setbacks include getting ejected from eighth-grade music class for throwing a spitball and the heartbreak of learning that the accordion has no place on a thrash-metal stage. Success came later when Mark fronted an alternative-rock band. He owns a pennywhistle, a broken violin, and a boxful of other musical instruments of mass destruction. Mark now lives and often hums quietly in Massachusetts.
Lemonade Mouth is Mark Peter Hughes’s second novel. His first, I am the Wallpaper, was a Children’s Book Sense 76 Summer Pick and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age.

About this edition

• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0385733925
• ISBN 13: 9780385733922
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352