A 15-year-old girl named Jessie voices typical—and not so typical—teenage concerns in this unique, hilarious collection of poems. Her musings about trying out new makeup and hairstyles, playing volleyball and cello, and dealing with her annoying younger brother are never boring or predictable. Who else do you know who designs her own clothes and writes poetry to her cat? Jessie’s a girl with strong opinions, and she isn’t shy about sharing them. Her funny, sarcastic take on high school life is revealed through concrete poetry: words, ideas, type, and design that combine to make pictures and patterns. The poems are inventive, irreverent, irresistible, and full of surprises—just like Jessie—and the playful layout and ingenious graphics extend the wry humor.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"This irreverent, witty collection should resonate with a wide audience." School Library Journal, Starred
"After suffering indignities at the pen of ... Robert (TECHNICALLY, IT'S NOT MY FAULT, 2004), big sister Jessie gets her chance." Kirkus Reviews
"A cover that'll grab adolescent girls' attention--and the poetry inside is equally appealing." Horn Book
"Friendly and accessible ... it will undoubtedly inspire a multitude of curricular uses." Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"After suffering indignities at the pen of ... Robert (TECHNICALLY, IT'S NOT MY FAULT, 2004), big sister Jessie gets her chance." Kirkus Reviews
"A cover that'll grab adolescent girls' attention--and the poetry inside is equally appealing." Horn Book
"Friendly and accessible ... it will undoubtedly inspire a multitude of curricular uses." Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
About the Author
John Grandits is an award-winning book and magazine designer and the author of "Beatrice Black Bear," a monthly cartoon for Click magazine. He lives in Red Bank, N.J., with his wife, Joanne, a children's librarian, and Gilbert, an evil cat. His first book of concrete poetry, Technically, It's Not My Fault, followed the adventures of a boy named Robert, who was often in conflict with his older sister, Jessie. Blue Lipstick gives Jessie a chance to tell her side of the story.
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More About the Author
John Grandits is a poet, typographer, art director, designer, & writer. He's written cartoons, articles, humor pieces, fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. In his previous life he was associated with a number of juvenile publishing ventures including Cricket, Muse, and Click magazines, Crown Books for Children and Random House. He has also art directed adult trade and children's textbooks. For a short time he was owner and publisher of a film and video review magazine. He has written and designed books, book jackets & covers, brochures, advertisements, periodicals, record jackets, corporate logos (although he hated doing it), posters and, of course, poems. He loves visiting schools and libraries to read his poems and stories. Home is Red Bank, NJ where he lives with his wife and two very, very silly kittens.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Poetry Hook,
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This review is from: Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems (Paperback)
Blue Lipstick is the perfect book to get teens interested in reading and writing poetry. Buy this and its companion book, Technically, it's not My Fault, and watch the teens in your classroom devour them!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazingly Wonderful,
This review is from: Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems (Paperback)
It was amazing. I love it. I discovered this book when I was a sophmore in High School and fell in love with concrete poetry. I connected with the main character, Jessie, and related to her stories. I've checked it out from my local library several times since then and started writing my own concrete poetry. I would definately recommend this book to teens who enjoy poetry, or even who don't because it's not in the usual poetry format teenagers are accustomed to.
2.0 out of 5 stars
It's a start, but as a stand-alone, not enough.,
By
This review is from: Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems (Paperback)
John Grandits, Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems (Clarion, 2007)
I might have ended up liking this book better had I known from the outset it's the sequel to another Grandits book (which I haven't read), but I don't know about that. I have a tendency to be very touchy when it comes to the subject of poetry (after all, I wrote the stuff for more years than I care to count), and the plethora of young-adult-oriented "verse novels" in recent years has in general, when I have encountered them, made me want to boil my head in acid rather than have to read another page of the stuff. So, the second strike against the press release that alerted me to this book: it didn't inform me that this was anything other than a single-author collection of poetry. I didn't know it had a plot, however loose that plot may be. Still, I tried to put my prejudices aside and give this a fair shake. I must have, because I didn't end up giving it zero stars--and it's the first "verse novel" that hasn't gotten such. Jessie is fifteen, the older sister of Robert, from Grandits' earlier book Technically, It's Not My Fault. Blue Lipstick is supposed to be a glimpse into Jessie's journal, a look at the ups and downs of being a teen. And it is that. Whether it is poetry is an entirely different story, but it's much less of a story than it is in the work of Ellen Hopkins or Tonya Lee Stone (neither of whom would know a good poem if it bit either in the face). Grandits at least has a handle on Apollinaire, the originator of the calligramme (which has morphed over the past century into the concrete poem), and it shows. Not constantly, and not well, but it does show, and there are a few pieces in here that surprise and please with plays on words (obviously intentional by Grandits, but not always intentional on the part of Jessie, and this is also impressive). It's not a book of consistently high quality, else I'd be giving it a far higher rating, but it does have its moments. As a way to draw kids into the idea of poetry, it may well work if you hit them with a copy of Apollinaire's Alcools right afterwards to show them what the real thing should be like ("Il Pleut" is still, to this day, the finest example of the calligramme in existence). On its own, though, it may reinforce the kind of negative traits that made [...] a thriving site for so many years. **
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