Poetry

The book Blue Lipstick, by John Grandits, is a specialized poetry book (from the list on pg. 138 of class text) and has received the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Honor Award, National Parenting Publications Book Award and was voted as one of the School Library Journal Best Books of the Year.  It was also on ALA's Notable Book for Children and Quick Pick for Young Adults Lists.

The book is amazing and any student would love it.  A love of poetry is not needed to enjoy this poets work.  Just looking at how he creatively designed the layout of the poems is inspiring.  He writes the poems for teens about how they are thinking and feeling.  Each poem is shaped into a visual image of what the poem is about.  It is almost impossible to describe his work.  You have to really look at the book yourself to fully understand the complexity of his writing style.  The poet calls the style he uses Concrete Poems.  He uses a variety of fonts, shapes, textures, colors and range of motion that turns his poems into not only poetry, but art work as well.

The poems are about a teenage girl named Jessie and how she sees the people and events around her.  The mental image you get about Jessie after reading the poems is hysterical.  She has an I do not care what others think of me attitude.  The poetic world Grandits has developed for her lets this uniqueness shine. 


To "hook" the students I would show them the poem titled Bad Hair Day.  I would display the poem on the white or smart board and then read it aloud to the students.  I just loved the poem and think that any student would relate to Jessie.


I know this is not as much as I usually add about the books I have read, but it is really hard to put it into words.  You really need to check it out for yourselves.  I think that any teacher would love to use Grandits style with their students, and boy would they be engaged.