Blog Tour: Review and Giveaway (US/Canada) of
POISONED APPLES
by Christine Heppermann
Published by Greenwillow Books
Pub date: September 23, 2014
About POISONED APPLES:
Every little girl goes through her princess phase, whether she wants to be Snow White or Cinderella, Belle or Ariel. But then we grow up. And life is not a fairy tale.
Christine Heppermann’s collection of fifty poems puts the ideals of fairy tales right beside the life of the modern teenage girl. With piercing truths reminiscent of Laurie Halse Anderson and Ellen Hopkins, this is a powerful and provocative book for every young woman. E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars, calls it “a bloody poetic attack on the beauty myth that’s caustic, funny, and heartbreaking.”
Cruelties come not just from wicked stepmothers, but also from ourselves. There are expectations, pressures, judgment, and criticism. Self-doubt and self-confidence. But there are also friends, and sisters, and a whole hell of a lot of power there for the taking. In fifty poems, Christine Heppermann confronts society head on. Using fairy tale characters and tropes, Poisoned Apples explores how girls are taught to think about themselves, their bodies, and their friends. The poems range from contemporary retellings to first-person accounts set within the original tales, and from deadly funny to deadly serious. Complemented throughout with black-and-white photographs from up-and-coming artists, this is a stunning and sophisticated book to be treasured, shared, and paged through again and again.
My Review of POISONED APPLES:
5/5 stars
General comments: Great cover with the river of red fabric for the cloak worn by a young woman. Symbolic and powerful. Stunning artwork alongside Christine Heppermann’s poems.
Bite and taste
Poisoned
Apples stuffed
down girls throats
by society,
advertisement,
the clothes
on mannequins
selling sexuality,
diet aids, beauty.
Rebel against
stereotypes,
Stand up
for feminism. Take
a good long look
in the mirror, mirror
on the wall
who’s the fairest
queen
of all. See how
we’re brainwashed
to believe so little
about ourselves
as girls, women.
Thank you
very much
fairy tales. Damsels
in distress we’re NOT!
Welcome to
the real world
filled with Poisoned Apples.
Poisoned Apples is a brilliant must-read, critical for both male and female young adults. I hope teachers in upper middle school and high schools will have the courage to put this in the hands of students and utilize it for a strong social discussion of society’s pressures caused by stereotypes and negative self-image. A clever, revealing, heartbreaking, honest window into beauty and society through a retelling of fairy tales.
Deep gratitude to Hannah McBride of the Irish Banana Review for putting together and including me in this blog tour. Thank you so much to Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins for a ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Christine Heppermann
Christine Heppermann is a writer, poet, and critic. Her book of poetry for young adults, Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty, will be published by Greenwillow Books in September, 2014. Poisoned Apples has been called “a bloody poetic attack on the beauty myth that’s caustic, funny and heartbreaking” (E. Lockhart) and a “powerful and provocative exploration of body image, media, and love” (Rae Carson).
Christine’s first book, City Chickens (Houghton Mifflin, 2012), is a nonfiction story about a shelter for abandoned and unwanted chickens in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In 2015 Greenwillow Books will publish the first book of the Backyard Witch Series, written by Christine and Ron Koertge. The middle-grade series follows three best friends and a mysterious visitor who appears for curious adventures just when they need her most.
Christine was a columnist and reviewer for The Horn Book Magazine from 1996 until 2013. Her poems are published in 5AM, The Magazine of Contemporary Poetry; Poems and Plays; Kite Tales; Nerve Cowboy; The Mas Tequila Review; and The Horn Book Magazine. Her reviews of children’s and young adult books have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines. She has an MA in Children’s Literature from Simmons College and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University.
Blog Tour:
Giveaway: (US/Canada Only)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
