BLUE LIPSTICK: CONCRETE POEMS by John Grandits

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Grandits, John. 2007. BLUE LIPSTICK: CONCRETE POEMS. New York: Clarion. ISBN 0618568603

PLOT SUMMARY

BLUE LIPSTICK is a book of concrete poems which utilize shape and art to make things interesting.  The book is written from the perspective of a teenage girl, Jessie, who writes about her experiences with school, family, and fitting in. 

                                                              

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

In this compilation, each poem tells a story and leads into the next.  The reader is captivated and pulled in by the elements and is able to easily read from poem to poem.  Each individual poem has its own rhythm.  “Zombie Jocks” is written in four-line stanzas and includes repetition and rhyming at the end while “Pep Rally” is not in equal stanzas and does not have any rhyming qualities.  However, “Pep Rally” does flow nicely and provides dramatic pauses.  The book of poems incorporates sound elements such as onomatopoeia in the poem, “Talking to My Stupid Younger Brother…” which uses the words burp and achoo. The language is reflective of a teenager girl and incorporates words like duh, jeez, jerk, road kill, whatever, uh-huh, and bummed. 

There are over thirty poems and each is written in a shape that reinforces the message of them poem.  “Bad Hair Day” is written in the shape of crazy hair and “Happy B*Day, Mom” is in the shape of a hot air balloon.  In this poem about her mother’s birthday wish of flying in a hot air balloon, Jessie ends the trip by barfing and the word barf is repeatedly seen in the shape of cascading barf from the sky.  Though written by Grandits, an older man, the reader falls right into the events Jessie is writing about as if the author has lived them. 

One selection, “Silver Spandex” is a poem written about a conversation with Andrea, a cheerleader who is also a guitar player.  Jessie finds that Andrea is just a regular person, though “annoyingly pretty” and that they might have more in common that she originally realized.  The poem is shaped like a guitar and a cello. 

REVIEW EXCERPTS

KIRKUS REVIEWS –““All My Important Thinking Gets Done in the Shower,” possibly the best selection, features gentle streams of blue words emerging from a showerhead, each forming a sentence completely unrelated to the one next to it.”

ReadKiddoRead – “How John Grandits, a man, has gotten under the skin of a ninth grader with such resonance, honesty, and humor, I can't fathom, but if you were ever a ninth grade girl, you'll marvel. And if you weren't, you'll learn a lot.”

CONNECTIONS

*After learning about shape poems and assigning students to write their own, read/show BLUE LIPSTICK to give students an example. 

*Have students get into groups and choose one of Jessie’s poems to discuss.  Students can discuss how they can relate to her and how she can solve the problem [if there is one].

*For personal character-related units, have students pick a poem of Jessie’s that they can somehow relate to and create a similar poem identifying how they relate and the importance of being themselves.