"Until today, I was Holly Lawrence-Jones, but soon I'm going to be Yvette Lawrence-Jones. Yvette like wonderful Aunt Yvette who gave you me, Diary."

 When Holly Lawrence-Jones relocates from New York to Massachusetts with her family, she decides to take on a new identity to go along with her new surroundings. When she enrolls at her new school, Holly changes her name to Yvette. She becomes more feminine and hides the fact that her two moms are lesbians. Ultimately, Holly learns valuable self-transforming lessons such as real friends support each other, you should never hide who you truly are, and deception hurts those you love.

Told from first person voice, Garden's novel details the struggles experienced by children who belong to nontraditional families.  Holly's character is presented as vulnerable and desperate to fit in with her peers.  At times, she is willing to sacrifice the values and morals taught by her parents in order to be popular and accepted.  Throughout the novel, Garden emphasizes the negative role of labels as they relate to prejudice. While reading the novel, young readers experience the tense and harmful emotions that result from using derogative terms.

Y"ou mean youve got two moms? The girl sounded aghast. You mean they're dykes?" "Hollys stomach lurched as if someone had just punched it."

Holly's Secret exposes readers to the consequences of deception and the elements of true friendship in a non-intimidating manner. In plain eloquent writing, Nancy Garden simply encourages teens to be truthful and love themselves.

I would recommend Holly's Secret to teen readers because, it is a sensational young adult novel.  As Publishers Weekly suggests, it is filled with entertaining twist and turns.