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21st out of 90 books
—
138 voters
The Geography of Girlhood
by
Kirsten Smith (Goodreads Author)
On her fourth birthday Penny received a globe from her mother: "If you ever need me . . . just remember I'll always be somewhere on here." Two weeks later her mother left, never to return. In a powerful verse novel, Penny charts the landscape of her high-school years--her older sister's wild ways, her best friend's descent into depression, her first boyfriend's accidental...more
Paperback, 192 pages
Published
February 7th 2007
by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
(first published March 1st 2006)
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Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com
Novels told in verse usually fall into two categories: those that simply tell a story with poetry, and those that manage to capture a life so eloquently in verse that you fall headfirst into the story. THE GEOGRAPHY OF GIRLHOOD, thankfully, falls into the latter category. Kirsten Smith has managed to pen, through verse, the story of fourteen-year old Penny Marrow, a girl you will laugh with, cry with, and get to know very, very well within the pages of this boo...more
Novels told in verse usually fall into two categories: those that simply tell a story with poetry, and those that manage to capture a life so eloquently in verse that you fall headfirst into the story. THE GEOGRAPHY OF GIRLHOOD, thankfully, falls into the latter category. Kirsten Smith has managed to pen, through verse, the story of fourteen-year old Penny Marrow, a girl you will laugh with, cry with, and get to know very, very well within the pages of this boo...more
Turns out The Geography of Girlhood was written by someone who knows a lot about teenage girls – at least in the movies. Kirsten Smith is the co-writer of some classic teen flicks including 10 Things I Hate About You, Ella Enchanted and one of my all-time, never-get-sick-of-it faves She’s the Man. (I can not stress how much I love She’s the Man. I’ve seen it many times and it still makes me laugh. I love that I can share it with my students when we study Twelfth Night.)
When The Geography of Girl...more
When The Geography of Girl...more
This book had such an ease and flow. It was easy to read it in a day due to the free verse of the pages.
I actually do not think the title is stupid, the line toward the ending that says, "Isn't it strange the places on the map, your heart can take you?" All relating back to her mother, all relating back to her life. That the geography of a girl is all over, they don't stay in the same wavelength as people, they think of love as if it could be more than once. I truly believe it shouldn't be calle...more
I actually do not think the title is stupid, the line toward the ending that says, "Isn't it strange the places on the map, your heart can take you?" All relating back to her mother, all relating back to her life. That the geography of a girl is all over, they don't stay in the same wavelength as people, they think of love as if it could be more than once. I truly believe it shouldn't be calle...more
Apr 19, 2011
Patricia (Patricia's Particularity)
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Shelves:
young-adult,
wishlist
The Geography of Girlhood is simply about a girl growing up, becoming a young adult, without certain "guides". At a young age, Penny's mother left her and her family, leaving her, her sister and her father behind. Just like most sister relationships, Penny secretly looks up to her older sister while the two bicker and fight all the time. Penny struggles with all the little and large aspects in growing up as she starts high school.
Kirsten Smith's use of Free-Verse offers a new point of view and...more
Kirsten Smith's use of Free-Verse offers a new point of view and...more
The format of writing a novel in verse is no longer novel, but it is used to great effect in this book. Penny tells her story in more than her words, in her thoughts and feelings. These same feelings that are hard for a teenage girl to express in narrative, come alive in unstructured verse.
Penny's older sister Tara, is who Penny both yearns to be, and is afraid of becoming - because her mother was seemingly as wild as Tara, and left when Penny was four. Her father gets remarried to a vegan with...more
Penny's older sister Tara, is who Penny both yearns to be, and is afraid of becoming - because her mother was seemingly as wild as Tara, and left when Penny was four. Her father gets remarried to a vegan with...more
In my efforts to expand my reading horizons, I went in search of Chic Lit that would be interesting and maybe, go beyond just l-i-t. Interesting, but ultimately tame, [The Geography of Girlhood is the basic story of Girl envies bad girl sister, abandons friends, discovers some interesting new ones, has an nice first boyfriend, that ends, ends with a bad boy, losses virginity, and then reflects on what is uncertain about life. Written in verse, it is a good way to introduce girls to poetry, but i...more
A poignant coming-of-age story, written as a series of poems in a 14-year-old girl's diary. An easy, quick, enjoyable read.
"When I break up with Randall,
everyone wants to know why
I'd do something so dumb.
What I want to know is,
haven't they ever heard a song
or read a poem or watched a movie?
If they had, they'd know
that love is a school
where the only curriculum is kissing,
love is the first day of sun
after a whole winter of rain,
love is a secret thicket of small trees
just outside of town,
love is h...more
"When I break up with Randall,
everyone wants to know why
I'd do something so dumb.
What I want to know is,
haven't they ever heard a song
or read a poem or watched a movie?
If they had, they'd know
that love is a school
where the only curriculum is kissing,
love is the first day of sun
after a whole winter of rain,
love is a secret thicket of small trees
just outside of town,
love is h...more
I really connected with Kirsten Smith's style. I loved how she could take something you thought was predictable and twist it in a different way. As far as verse novels go, I really thought this one was artistic, creative, and fresh.
She deals with some very real issues, like mental illness and running away. And I can really see how the latter makes sense in a teen girl's head. The voice was great, even if there were a few spots where the author sounded a bit too much like an adult, like in the p...more
She deals with some very real issues, like mental illness and running away. And I can really see how the latter makes sense in a teen girl's head. The voice was great, even if there were a few spots where the author sounded a bit too much like an adult, like in the p...more
I picked up this book knowing nothing about it and feared it would be another teen girl book filled with the drama of coming of age. It was anything but that. Eloquently written in verse, Penny brings a fresh voice to coming of age as she tries to figure out the world in which she lives. Smith doesn't try to give every day-to-day detail of a pivotal moment in Penny's life; rather, she briefly moves Penny from middle school through part of high school in brief poetically written vignettes. Penny...more
Penny is leaving Junior High and heading into High School...very scary time in her life for her, but once she is involved in HS, she realizes that she did a lot of worrying for nothing. Penny's life revolves around thoughts of love, popularity and whether she is going to be accepted by others. Penny's mother left when she was very young and now in her life is a Stepmother and a stepbrother. Penny is always comparing herself to her older sister, Tara - who is basically the "bad girl" of the famil...more
Okay, so the title "The Geography of Girlhood" sucks. I mean that is a severely cruddy title, but in many ways it truly reflects this novel. It was overly dramatic and very whiny. Penny goes from being a sweet, awkward 14 year old to a promiscuous teen for reasons not clearly explained in the novel. Sure, her mother abandoned her family, her boyfriend of five minutes died in a freak accident, and her best friend is hospitalized for being a nut-so, but why does Penny go "crazy"? I still can't fig...more
Aug 01, 2008
Sandi
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
high school girls who aren't happy
Shelves:
realistic-fic,
young-adult
The "Geography of Girlhood" is the story of Penny, a girl we follow in verse from ages 14 to about 16. Penny has a wild older sister, a dysfunctional and missing mother, and a father who is trying to cope with it all on his own. Penny's father eventually marries a marine biologist and brings a new vegan wife and step-brother into his white bread/red meat world. In the end Penny grows a bit and discovers her step-brother isn't so bad; her life is her life and she needs to accept it.
There are seve...more
There are seve...more
I wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did. The truth is, I have a weakness for novels written in verse. Verse seems more accurate somehow than the pretense and trappings of traditional novels. In verse, you can show the ebb and flow of thoughts, the rhythm of consciousness. This book seemed like a fairly decent portrayal of growing up, and although the protagonist's choices aren't the same as mine, I have definitely felt many of the things described in this book.
High school and up - book in verse. This was an interesting story about a girl from a small town. It is a drive through adolescence and how the scenery is always changing. Friends, boyfriends, and family can all seem as though they are firmly planted, yet when you wake the next morning, the view can be very different. As Penny struggles between fitting in with her old friends, and making new ones, she discovers one that she never would have guessed existed. Herself.
this was a pretty great book.
its about a girl who wants to grow up and be like her sister. especially since shes starting high school. she also gets a new stepmom. she has no one to talk or relate to.
i liked this book because i love books in verse and i just wanted to keep reading and reading...
i would recommend this book to people who enjoy a sweet teenage realistic fiction book were people want to find their true selves.
its about a girl who wants to grow up and be like her sister. especially since shes starting high school. she also gets a new stepmom. she has no one to talk or relate to.
i liked this book because i love books in verse and i just wanted to keep reading and reading...
i would recommend this book to people who enjoy a sweet teenage realistic fiction book were people want to find their true selves.
This book was verrry quick to read. I don't particularly enjoy novels in verse, mostly because they are hard to get into. I also didn't find the narrator's (I forgot her name) story particularly interestng, or the poems particularly enjoyable. Nothing earth-shattering here. But if you are looking for a super quick read, or are interested in novels told in verse, you might like it.
I felt that this would have been the type of book I would have liked to reader back in high school when my teachers forced me to read books I did not enjoy. This verse novel breaks up the story into what seems like diary entries. It is much friendlier of a read than what I used to read (endless endless words on pages). As an adult, I would definitely NOT want my teenage daughter reading this book.
This was an interesting concept. It was mostly short poems, with a few "paragraph" poems thrown in. The poems weren't that great, maybe because they were supposed to be written by a teenage girl? Either way, they gave just enough information to tell the story. It definitely isn't the way I want all my books delivered to me, but for a lark it was fun.
Started out too light, too young, too sweet. What was I expecting from another YA verse novel? I'm really glad I stuck with this, because the first impressions were just a ruse: it has weight, wisdom, and an edge. Although it is a scant 182 page, it spans the end of middle school (9th grade in this book), the first year of HS, two summers, and part of Junior year. By the last page, quite a bit of ground has been covered, physically and emotionally.
Penny's voice is particularly clear, and Smith m...more
Penny's voice is particularly clear, and Smith m...more
Despite its cheesy and loaded title, The Geography of Girlhood was actually one of the best-written novels in verse I've ever read. I think the plotting was a bit unusual in that the book is shorter than most YA novels, but covers more than two years' worth of events. I didn't feel rushed, really, at any point, but it did give me pause a couple of times when I realized that 30 pages or so could equal an entire year, and that so much more had to have happened to Penny in that time than what we we...more
Easy read...my 14 year old cousin gave it to me. The literary merit is almost nonexistent and it's a typical tween book. Although its written in short prose, it does touch upon a few touchy teen topics (mental illness) and also a few general teen topics (first kiss, etc).
I just didn't feel the poetry in this book was that poetic. I don't need anything flowery, but I'd like some unique imagery or styling. This was a quick read, but it just feels like it has all been said before-- and frequently better.
Wow. I read this book a couple years ago, and I still think about it. Its haunting story of a teenage girl and the beautiful poetry telling of her story is purely amazing. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
geography of girl girlhood was sweet i liked thati think jenny went back home to her new family and how the sorry is cutting up with different title the book was awesome i loved i when is the next book coming out.
Well-written story in poetic form, but I'm just a bit too burnt-out on YA tales of popular-but-not-too-popular, attractive-but-not-too-attractive everyteens coping with love, sex and death to appreciate it.
Jan 19, 2009
Dianna
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
nobody at all
Recommended to Dianna by:
silly old me
i actually read this book a while back and then forgot about it.
it was ok. pretty girly and moody and whatnot. stereotypical.
and there was a lot of swearing. i wouldn;t really reccommend it.
it was ok. pretty girly and moody and whatnot. stereotypical.
and there was a lot of swearing. i wouldn;t really reccommend it.
Apr 13, 2009
Lynleigh
added it
Growing up is hard in several different ways. This book shows almost everything a girl goes through in her teens and how to solve all those many problems that are faced.
A coming of age verse novel about teen with a wild older sister, an absent mother and a father who brings a new stepmother and stepbrother into the picture.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF GIRLHOOD is a novel-in-verse that stares unflinchingly into the broken and confused life of a high school girl. Penny’s mother left her, her father, and her older sister Tara a long time ago. Tara is the cool older sister who hardly gives Penny the time of day, and Penny’s two best friends are drifting apart, turning into people she hardly knows.
Thus, Penny must navigate the choppy waters of adolescence by herself. Sometimes she gets things right, but most of the time she’ll mak...more
Thus, Penny must navigate the choppy waters of adolescence by herself. Sometimes she gets things right, but most of the time she’ll mak...more
A solid poetic novel about a teenager's search for identity inside a newly blended family. There are well-drawn relationships between the main character and her boyfriend, her younger stepbrother, her older sister, her new stepmother, and her father. When the main character runs away, you understand why she does it, and when she changes her mind and goes home, you understand that, too. I don't think I would recommend this for poor readers: the book is easy to read, but there's quite a bit left t...more
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Kirsten Smith is a screenwriter of girl power movies and an author of YA novels. She co-wrote LEGALLY BLONDE, 10THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU, THE HOUSE BUNNY, SHE’S THE MAN and THE UGLY TRUTH. Her poetry has been published in The Gettysburg Review, Shenandoah and The Massachusetts Review. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she now lives in Los Angeles with a boy and two dogs.
More about Kirsten Smith...
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