Blue Lipstick

1.     BIBLIOGRAPHY:  Grandits, John. 2007. BLUE LIPSTICK.  New York, NY: Clarion Books. ISBN 0618568603.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
The book by Grandits is full of concrete poems meaning the poem takes the shape of whatever subject matter it is about.  Jessie is the main character.  She is a typical teenage girl with teenage girl drama.  She is on the volleyball team, has a crush on a boy, dislikes cheerleaders, argues with her little brother Robert, struggles with her appearance, disagrees with her parents, and has bad days.  She is also a vegetarian.  Lisa is her best friend and she stays up late at night with her sending instant messages.  She helps her dye her hair blue.  Jessie spends a lot of time hanging out with her volleyball team, even going bowling without much success.  She ends up befriending the cheerleader that she disliked, named Andrea.  They become friends from learning about each other’s instruments.  Andrea plays the electric guitar while Jessie plays the cello.  Jessie decides that she would like to be in a rock band like Andrea too.     

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This poetry book is a very relatable book for many teenage girls or boys.  The author took very mundane high school things and added the hype, drama, and randomness that truly come from a high school student’s perspective.  I love the “Bad Hair Day” when her hair is bleached white on some parts and an awful blue in other areas.  Her mom calls her a woman, and all that mattered to her after that was that her mom viewed her as grown-up.  Teenagers are resilient and very honest, which the book really seemed to capture in the dialogue with words like “instant messaging”, “B.O.”, and “post-punk urban too-cool-to-go-to-the-mall style”. 

The style of using the concrete poems was so clever.  It really captures the essence of the poem.  It also helps convey the scattered thoughts of the teenage girl, particularly in the “All My Important Thinking Gets Done in the Shower”.  In “Go Look in the mirror!”, the image that she sees is even inverted to emphasize how she sees something very different than her father does.  Grandits uses not only shape to make a point, but he also uses color and text to emphasize his point.  The color of words changes when he needs to emphasize a point, such as, in “Zombie Jocks”, uses the word trophy symbolically as the eyes as jocks that can only envision and see a trophy as a goal.  Also, the letter e is written in reverse to show how she thinks they are not as intelligent.  Grandits really uses a multitude of visual strategies to capture Jessie’s thoughts and interpret her deeper feelings.

 
4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Starred Review in SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL:  “This irreverent, witty collection should resonate with a wide audience.”

Starred Review in HORN BOOK:  “A cover that'll grab adolescent girls' attention--and the poetry inside is equally appealing.”

5. CONNECTIONS

*It would be great to use in conjunction with teaching concrete poems.

Other books with concrete poetry:

Grandits, John.  TECHNICALLY, IT’S NOT MY FAULT.  ISBN 061842833-X.

Sidman, Joyce.  A POKE IN THE I.  ISBN 0763623768.

Raschka, Chris, & Janeczko, Paul.  MEOW RUFF.  ISBN 0618448942.

*It would be great to use in conjunction with talking about expressing your feelings.