Goodreads Choice Awards Book Club discussion

Our winning Goodreads Choice Awards nominee poetry book for February is Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty by Christine Heppermann. Please join the discussion here!



Book Description

Once upon a time...
you were a princess,
or an orphan.
A wicked witch,
fairy godmother,
prom queen,
valedictorian,
team captain,
Big Bad Wolf,
Little Bo Peep.
But you are more than just a hero or
a villain, cursed or charmed. You are
everything in between.
You are everything.

In fifty poems Christine Heppermann places fairy tales side by side with the modern teenage girl. Powerful and provocative, deadly funny and deadly serious, this collection is one to read, to share, to treasure, and to come back to again and again.

Nice. They have it at my library, so I'm going to at least peak into the book. I'm not a poetry fan, but this one sounds much more interesting than the award winner to me.

I'm planning to take a peek at it as well, Janina. I also don't care for poetry, but it looks interesting to me too.

Strangely I was talking about poetry with my boss the other day and he said "Not many like to read poetry, plenty like to write it but not read it"

Made me smile.

Picked this one up from the library today. It is a cute, little book. Should be a quick read. I read the first few poems and (pg. 24) (view spoiler)[ they seem fairly dark and grim. I suppose they old fairy tales were dark & grim, so I guess it fits the theme and I should have expected that. (hide spoiler)] I'm going to put it aside now to read the beginning of February. I'm looking forward to seeing what people think of it.

So, I was thinking the I would skip the poetry category altogether. The title and cover for this one really caught my eye and our library had it in, so . . .

I actually decided to pick up both this one and the primary poetry read, Lullabies. I am finished with Lullabies, and am getting started on this one.

I'm still waiting for mine to become available. Strangely, all four copies of the book are checked out and there are plenty of holds on them as well. I wonder if it was featured somewhere recently?
Anyways, I hope I'll get to read it during February ..

I got the book today and already read the whole thing. I'm not sure about it.
I think the message is an important one and I like that someone is addressing it. But, it makes for a rather depressing read .. as if those teenage years as a girl are nothing but being oppressed by societies expectations.
So, while I think the message is important and I am hoping that my girls will grow up knowing the message, I don't think the book is truly helpful or a good read for any teenage girl. It's not empowering or uplifting. It's just pointing out problems, lamenting them, but giving no hope. And there is lots and lots of hope, because to me the real message should be that beauty is within you and independent of anyone or anything.

I guess I just prefer focusing on strength and good things that being stuck in misery (even if it may be justified to some extent).

Janina - I only read the beginning of the book so far, but I got the same feeling from it. I also prefer empowerment and would rather my daughters read something that focuses on hope and inner strength.

Just started it today. I have to say that the first few pages are a bit depressing.

I just finished this book and have to agree, it is not a good read for any teenager. I think the author could have done a better job denouncing the fairy tale myth of beauty. There are other books that do give girls a positive view. This one just doesn't cut it.

Oh, at once I seem to like poetry.. I think it has been pretty interesting so far. I guess the biggest problem with poetry is that usually it is not translate very well between languages, even between west cultures and countries, but maybe this is easy enough to understand. She makes good points but I can find teen depression feeling too. And I really need some quick read right now.

Glad you enjoyed it, Reija!

I'm not a poetry buff, so I don't have much to compare this to. I found it to be gloomy and repetitive. I loved the cover though!

Well, in the end I ended up really liking it! Might even read it again.