Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It: False Apology Poems

by Gail Carson Levine, Matthew Cordell (Illustrator)

This Is Just to Say
If you're looking
for a nice
happy book

put this one down
and run away
quickly

Forgive me
sweetness
and good cheer
are boring

Inspired by William Carlos Williams's famous poem "This Is Just to Say," Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine delivers a wickedly funny collection of her own false apology poems, imagining how tricksters really feel about the mischief they make. Matthew Cordell's clever and playful line art lightheartedly captures the spirit of the poetry. This is the perfect book for anyone who's ever apologized . . . and not really meant it.

Genres: Poetry, Humor, Picture Books, Childrens, Middle Grade, Nonfiction, Fairy Tales

80 pages, Hardcover

First published March 13, 2012

About the author

Just letting you all know: I'm only going to review books I love. There's enough negative criticism without me piling on. A book is too hard to write.

Gail Carson Levine grew up in New York City and began writing seriously in 1987. Her first book for children, Ella Enchanted, was a 1998 Newbery Honor Book. Levine's other books include Fairest; Dave at Night, an ALA Notable Book and Best Book for Young Adults; The Wish; The Two Princesses of Bamarre; and the six Princess Tales books. She is also the author of the nonfiction book Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly and the picture book Betsy Who Cried Wolf, illustrated by Scott Nash. Gail, her husband, David, and their Airedale, Baxter, live in a 1790 farmhouse in the Hudson River Valley of New York State.

Reviews

[Dann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread this and loved it more!

Hilarious. I love it.

Turns out I have the right sense of humor to enjoy a children's humor/poetry book. SO mature of me. Yes, Mom, I'm totally a grown-up.

[Karin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have enjoyed several of Gail Carson Levine’s books in the past and was very curious when I saw that this poetry collection was written by her as well. I hope you don’t think I’m ignorant, but I had never heard of false apology poems before picking up this book and while I know the name William Carlos Williams, I had never read “This Is Just To Say,” which this book is inspired by. For those of you that haven’t read it either, here it is:





This Is Just To Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

William Carlos Williams (1934)

Levine has written a collection of humorous false apology poems. Some are realistic, some are fantastical, and some are just plain silly. She includes an introduction explaining where she got the idea (William Carlos Williams) and then gives the reader the permission to start writing their own false apology poems. Something I think is very good is she explained that the poems didn’t have to be exactly in Williams’ style. She deviated from the pattern in just about every poem, if not all of them.

Kids will get a kick out of this poetry collection. I know I did. I decided to write my own apology poem. Since William Carlos Williams wrote his to his wife I decided I would write mine to my husband.

This Is Just To Say

I didn’t finish
the laundry
that is piled
up high

I know
you need underwear
also
clothes for work

Forgive me
I was enjoying
some time
reading my book

Karin Perry (2012)

If you want to write you own in the style of William Carlos Williams, here is the pattern:

No punctuation
Only capitalize the first word and Forgive

3 words
2 words
3 words
2 words

2 words
3 words
2 syllables
3 syllables

Forgive me
3 words
2 words
3 words

This first two stanzas explain what you did and the final stanza is the fake apology.

[Kaethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it and laughed, then Natasha read it and laughed, and now Veronica is reading it. As far as I'm concerned the world can always use more light verse. And snarky poems riffing on fairy tales is about as light as you can get. Ultralight. Soaring.

Library copy.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tend to run my bookgroup for kids between the ages of 9-12 like a gentle dictatorship. I choose the books, the kids vote on them, and so it goes. Now if the kids had their way we’d be reading fantasy novels day in and day out every single week. With that in mind, I like to try to make them read something a little different once in a while. For example, one week I might try to get them to read a Newbery winner. The next I would try to encourage them to dip into some nonfiction. One type of book I haven’t had the nerve to attempt for years, though, is poetry. Finding a really good, really interesting, really smart book of poetry for kids of that age is tricky stuff. Poetic tastes vary considerably, so it’s best to start with a book with a hook. And by hook or by crook, Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It is basically the answer to my prayers I’ve been seeking all these long and lonely years. It has everything. Humor, engaging illustrations, a clever premise, potential (and very fun) applications, and a passive aggressive streak that's nearly a mile long.

Do you know that old William Carlos Williams poem about the plums in the icebox? The one that calls itself “This is Just to Say”? When you think about that poem, I mean really think about it, it’s just the most self-satisfied little number you ever did see. Williams is clearly not sorry, though he included the words “forgive me” in there. With that as her inspiration, Gail Carson Levine has penned forty-five or so false apology poems modeled on Williams’. The rules are simple. “The first stanza states the horrible offense. The second stanza describes the effect of the offense. The last stanza begins with ‘Forgive me’ and continues with the false apology, because the writer is not sorry at all." Mixing together fairy tales and silly situations, Levine’s poems span the gamut, from the cow in Jack and the Beanstalk taking issue with her monetary worth to a girl’s pets asking pseudo-forgiveness for enjoying her diary’s contents. Saying sorry without meaning it has never been this charming.

On the book’s dedication page read the words “To Susan Campbell Bartoletti, who led me down the poetry path.” I am currently in the process of putting in an order with FTD in the hopes of sending Ms. Bartoletti some flowers of my own. Whether intentionally or not, she has been at least partly responsible for helping to bring to this world a poet of undeniable talent. We all know Ms. Gail Carson Levine for her fantasy novels. Her Newbery Honor winning Ella Enchanted is probably her best known work. But when I saw that she had gone into the poetry business I couldn’t suppress a groan. Great. An author who thinks they can write. Whooptie-doo. Can’t wait to see what recycled trope makes its 100th appearance on the printed page yet again. Imagine my surprise then when I saw not only the idea behind the book (snarky in its mere conception, which is no easy task when you work in the world of juvenile literature) but the poems themselves. Ladies and gentlemen if I blame Ms. Levine for anything it is for denying the world her drop dead gorgeously twisted point of view for quite so long.

To back myself up I present to you the very format of the book itself. First up, the Table of Contents. It pretty much just consists of the words “This is Just to Say” over and over and over with different sizes and fonts and page numbers. You blink. You look at it again. You might shake your head slightly, and then you turn the page. Right off the bat you then encounter a pretty strange take on Sleeping Beauty, but it’s just kind of funny. Then you read a different poem about a brother committing foul, but not uncommon, acts upon his sister’s toys. Then you turn the page and that’s when the fun really starts. It’s a poem from the point of view of Snow White in which she lists the dwarfs poor hygiene and ends with “Forgive me / I’m making myself ugly / and leaving / with the witch.” This is accompanied by a picture of the crying dwarfs watching a now seriously ugly Snow White (she’s been crone-i-fied) arm in arm with the equally ugly evil witch. When I read this poem I immediately thought to myself, “I have never, ever, seen anyone do that before.” Turn the page and here’s a take on Jack and Jill where a gorilla purposefully causes Jack’s tumble via banana peel so that he can make Jill his girlfriend. Again my brain does a bit of a tarantella within my cranial cavity.

While reeling the reader encounters one or two more poems and then suddenly the Introduction to the book appears. It’s introduced by a poem in which Ms. Levine explains that her editor did not want the introduction at this point in the book. “Forgive me / I also shredded / her red pencil and stirred / the splinters into her tea.” After that we encounter Mr. William Carlos Williams, the original poem that inspired all of this, along with a very good two-page encapsulation of what these poems are and how one would go about making one. Teachers desperate for poetry assignments should rejoice. Levine spells out the format, even going so far as to say that you can “abandon the form completely and write false apology poems in your own cruel way.” Hey, man. Whatever gets ‘em writing. After that we plunge back into the woman’s poems and, by extension, her brain.

Generally speaking they’re pretty universally brilliant though once in a while a poem slips up. There’s one about that old song about the bear going over the mountain that ends a bit oddly and doesn’t pair as smoothly with its accompanying illustration as it might. And sometimes you do wonder if kids will get the references. Levine never names the fairy tales directly, often requiring you to figure them out for yourself (helped in no small part by Matthew Cordell’s valiant efforts to avoid drawing Disney characters). They’ll probably get the Beauty & the Beast poem in which Beauty proves a little too delectable. They may even understand the Pinocchio poem too. The Rumplestiltskin poem, however, stumped me for quite some time and I’m still not entirely certain I understand why he’s in the Dwarf Witness Protection Program at the end. Ah well. Collected poems are rarely equal in their magnificence, even when penned by a single creator.

The idea to pair these poems with the art of Matthew Cordell was certainly a good idea. Now Mr. Cordell has somehow managed to illustrate what looks to be something like FOUR books in 2012 alone. In this one, though, he’s really let his freak flag fly. Channeling everyone from Quentin Blake to Shel Silverstein, Cordell fills these pages with images as silly and as sardonic as Levine’s poems require. He even adds little touches of his own whenever possible. A graveyard poem in which a thief confesses crimes to the shocked skeletons present shows the lawbreaker reclining against tombstones sporting names like “Sgt. A.B. Solv” and “Honorable Conrad Fess”. Once in a while I don’t quite understand what he’s doing with his art (why are children attacking a lion when the accompanying poem is about how that lion just ate some kid’s parents?) but generally speaking it’s the top.

When you sit down and think of it, this book is almost the antithesis of that other work for children This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness by Joyce Sidman. Might be funny to pair these two together (though the universe might explode). And if you’re looking for smart works of poetry that could lead to writing assignments, consider pairing this book with Marilyn Singer’s Mirror Mirror or Bob Raczka’s Lemonade: And Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word. If you’re looking for works of children’s literature that have mentioned the William Carlos Williams poem in question you might want to check out Love That Dog by Sharon Creech or A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jennifer Fisher Bryant. And if you’re look for a book that’s like this one in any way shape or form then all I can say to you is present to you this little poem of my own:

Forgive me
the book is too good on its own
and I am far too lazy to do any research

For ages 5-10.

[Shoshana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is just to say


I have read
the poems
that were in
the book

and for which
you should probably
apologize
to William Carlos Willams

Forgive me
parodies are delicious
so sweet
and so cool

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how grouchy and mean these poems are.

Most of these poems are taken from well known tales and nursery rhymes - Jack and the Beanstalk, Humpty Dumpty, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, The Little Train, etc. - and many of these poems made me laugh out loud.

I pushed your boat out of the gentle stream/where you were merrily singing and rowing/Forgive me life is but a nightmare

I have chewed through the tall beanstalk/which you recently stepped off way up there/Forgive me I think I'm worth more than five magic beans



There are quite a few more than I noted because they made me laugh - that loud, I-wasn't-expecting-that kind of laugh.

Would I have been as giddily cynical at nine? I'm not sure. I think I enjoyed this more as an adult than I would have back then. Maybe I'll test it out on my daughter in a few years.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I added this to my TBR a LOOOOOONG time, so long ago in fact I can't remember why. It was a fun little read and I wonder if I knew this was a Children's book when I added it. It was silly and fun and kind of dark. Many of the poems were inspired by fairytales like, Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast, Humpty Dumpty, etc. I think kids could find this funny and most of the darker implications may just go right over their head.

All of the poems were told in the same format as the William Carlos Williams poem, "This is Just to Say" (1934). She uses the same first line for each and all of them are as the title suggests, silly false apologies. Levine encourages kiddos to write a poem just like it if they feel so inclined, which is a nice touch. I could see this be a fun kid's assignment. I will add my favorite poem below. I chuckled a few times and it was overall a fast and goofy read to pass the time.

"This is Just to Say"

A single rose
adorned the table
while I breakfasted
on your daughter

which
proves regrettably
that I am
just a beast

Forgive me
please send
her sisters
by the next coach

[Shiloah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious!!

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my, the things a teacher can do with this book! It is an obvious invitation to writing, but can also be used to teach allusion, tone, perspective, and that's just the beginning! Levine lets many familiar folk and fairy tale characters offer tongue-in-cheek apologies that fly right over the head of readers who aren't familiar with the old tales. My favorites? Jack's cow, who thinks she's "worth more than five magic beans;" and Pinocchio, who thinks telling lies is fun and doesn't "want to be a real boy anyway," come to mind.

Oddly, I didn't find a poem to accompany the illustration on the cover. Maybe I has two pages stick together or something, but I never one that went with a sinking rowboat and a grinning shark. So I wrote my own!

This is just to say

That I have bitten
A gaping hole
In the bottom
Of your boat

Where you felt
So safe and secure,
Bobbing on the waves
Above my circling.

Forgive me,
But a fish has to eat,
And you look so very, very
Tasty!

If I can do it, so can your students! Challenge them to choose a character from a favorite story, TV program or movie and write a false apology poem from the perspective of that character.

Pair this book with Joyce Sidman's This Is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness to examine the tone of Sidman's true apologies versus Levine's sly, snarky false ones. What fun!

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspired by the Williams Carlos Williams poem, "This is Just to Say", Levine has provided an insightful introduction to the form of a false apology poem, as well as provided a sampling of her own. A collection Shel Silverstein would be proud of. Highly recommended for schools and confidence building in both reading, writing and poetic forms. Black and white illustrations in a Silverstein tribute by the wonderful Matthew Cordell.

Here's one of my favorites:

THIS IS JUST TO SAY

While you were buying
doll dresses
I sanded off
your Barbie's face

which
you constantly
patted
and praised

Forgive me
her beauty
was only
skin deep

(accompanied by a picture of a littel boy sanding down a Barbie and a little girl running frantically into the scene of the unapologetic crime)

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amusing collection of poems inspired by the William Carlos Williams poem "This is Just to Say." Matthew Cordell's entertaining illustrations are a good complement to Levines's light-hearted verse. See also Joyce Sidman's anthology on a similar theme, This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness (Houghton Mifflin, 2007).

[Taylor Jade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warning: Anyone who reads this book out of order will have the curse of the mummy put on them! It's literally in the book, slightly less than halfway through. She spent 10 years arranging it, you know...

I adore this author. She writes some of the most fun twists on fairy tales! But I wasn't sure what the tone of this book was supposed to be. Some seem deep, some are fairy tale perspectives, and some seem to be nonsense stories. She still does well at painting a scene, especially for how few words she writes... but it doesn't feel cohesive. (I do, however, love the poem from the original author, whose idea these stories are based upon! His tone is exactly right, the blow and the unrepentance perfectly tuned.) I feel like the nonsense detracts from the work, especially if she truly put so much time into this. The illustrations seem like the first thing someone thought of and not accurate to some of the stories, which I don't think helps her cause. She might not want to have taken herself too seriously, but I think she could have- is the poem format that overworked?? Or indeed, section them off by type so the tones stayed consistent. They seem intentionally disarrayed, which is the most bewildering part of all. It's like she's cultivating this unease... And she's not sorry.

Or it could all be silly fun. Worth giving a shot!

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for the clever, wickedness of Shel, but this book should be titled, Poems By A-Holes. There were a few a-holes I appreciated, namely Hansel and Gretel's witch & Rapunzel. But most of the poems weren't silly enough for me.
The book does seem like a great poetry exercise, with Gail Carson Levine repeating the theme and singular poetry style through the whole book. And it is always fun to see fairy tales re-explored.

[Julianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

*laughs really hard and then rushes off to commit offenses for which she can write false apology poems.*

[Korbie Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so fun. There's just the right amount of snark and sarcasm for the poem type. It's my favorite poem collection I've read so far!

[Aleta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectacularly wicked. Also I'm pretty sure I'm cursed now. Oh well...

[Martina (sith acolyte) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75⭐️

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humorous collection of poems all based on William Carlos Williams' infamous poem "This Is Just To Say," the most famous false apology poem there is. The author includes a short introduction to the structure of these poems, encouraging readers to write their own. This would be a fun book to use to teach poetry to elementary school kids!

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious, with the funniest illustrations

[Heidi]

I hate to give my favorite author a poor rating so I won't give it a star rating. This was really not my cuppa. If you're into nonsense poems, you'll probably like it but it's not my style.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gail Carson Levine takes William Carlos Williams' poem about apologizing for eating the delicious, cold plums and makes a whole book of poetry based on the idea of tongue in check apologies.

Some are about parents or children apologizing to each other for bad grades or upcoming babysitters, but most of them are based on fairy tales, giving other characters a chance to speak, such as the cow from Jack and the Beanstalk, getting her revenge for being sold off for a measly five beans.

My favorite:

In your new prom dress
I danced
all night
with your boyfriend

who
accidentally
spilled grape juice
on the skirt

Forgive me
the stain
is almost
too small to see

[Michele Knott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book of pretend apologies written in poem form. You know when you see "false apology poems" on the cover, it's going to be a clever collection!
I liked how you read several poems before the "Introduction" is thrown in. All of these poems were formatted after William Carlos Williams's "This Is Just to Say" poem. Levine explains the format of the stanzas, punctuation and capitalization that Williams used in his poem.
Humorous poetry, fun to read!

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fun book of poetry. Can't wait to share it with students so they can have fun understanding the context of each poem and then try some of their own. Love how Levine pokes fun at everything, even the sequence of how a book should be set up.

[Cass · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book all over again every time I pick it up. It's a book of false apology poem that deserve a good laugh each time. My favorite is the brother who takes care of his sister's Barbie while the sister shops. It it definitely something a brother might do~

[Franki Sibberson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this anthology! Love the references to classic tales. Loved the humor. Laughed out loud a few times.

[midnightfaerie · Rating 2 out of 5]

My kids were too young to enjoy this one, and honestly I didn't enjoy it all that much either. The poems were a little trite and I didn't quite see the humor in them. Maybe when the kids are older.

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Booklist starred (March 1, 2012 (Vol. 108, No. 13))

Grades 2-5. Mean-spirited mischief and gruesome scenarios are part of the fun in these fractured-fairy-tale poems, which include wry takes on the Brothers Grimm, Mother Goose nonsense, and popular folklore. Written in the form of false apologies inspired by William Carlos Williams’ poem “This Is Just to Say,” the accessible free verse, along with wild line cartoons, shows the ugly standoffs and power plays between familiar characters. Snow White leaves willingly with the witch rather than staying with the dwarfs, who snore, pick their noses, and never bathe. Rapunzel lops off her braid, telling her would-be suitor, “You’re not worth / the pain / in my scalp.” The Beast burps after gobbling down Beauty for breakfast, then asks her father for another daughter. The princess always knew about the pea, which “helped immeasurably / in faking / the true princess test.” In an author’s note, Levine includes Williams’ poem and encourages readers to write their own false-apology verses, “in your own cruel ways.” But, she warns, “You have to be mean and grouchy.” Of course, the subversive, cranky tone is the appeal, as is the close look at popular sayings: ever thought about what it means to say “Blood is thicker than water”? Readers will enjoy sharing the surprising selections, which will make them rethink what they thought they knew.



Horn Book (March/April, 2012)

Levine unapologetically riffs on William Carlos Williams's poem "This Is Just to Say" in this collection of light verse that shows readers there's a lot more to be un-sorry about besides purloined chilled plums. With gleeful abandon, she looks to fairy tales and nursery rhymes for subject matter, as when she tells the Itsy Bitsy Spider to get a life; "This is just to say / I have torn / down / the water / spout / which / you obsessively / wanted to climb up / and slide off forever / Forgive me / kick your habit / spin a web / catch a bug." Other scenarios have kids taking revenge on adults -- planting poison ivy, for instance, on a skinflint's lawn with the caveat "Forgive me / next time / pay me / for mowing." Accompanied by an appropriately scruffy, subversive black-and-white cartoon, each poem mimics Williams's structure. The humor level of the collection is uneven, but Levine's spirited encouragement of readers (in an "introduction" that she cheekily places twenty pages into the book) to take Williams's form and write their own false apology poems will likely be heeded. After all, who can resist her permission to "get yourself into a grouchy mood" because these poems "should be mean, or what's the point"? christine m. heppermann



Horn Book starred (Fall 2012)

Levine unapologetically riffs on William Carlos Williams's poem "This Is Just to Say" in this collection of light verse that shows readers there's a lot more to be un-sorry about besides purloined chilled plums. Accompanied by an appropriately scruffy, subversive cartoon, each poem mimics Williams's structure. Levine's spirited encouragement of readers to write their own false apology poems will likely be heeded.



Kirkus Reviews (January 15, 2012)

A playful primer on insincerity for budding poets. Taking as a springboard William Carlos Williams' famous pseudo-apology, "I have eaten / the plums / that were in / the icebox [...] Forgive me ...," Newbery Honor--winner Levine and illustrator Cordell unleash their darker sides in offering children several imaginative occasions for issuing false apologies. One glance at the volume's contents listing poems all taking Williams' title "This Is Just to Say," and readers instantly clue into Levine's glib project, which she then explains and invites others to imitate some 20 pages into the volume--much, she admits, to her editor's chagrin. While many a poet has spoofed Williams in similar fashion and chosen this found poem's simple form to introduce children to imagistic self-expression (Kenneth Koch most memorably), what distinguishes Levine's project is her clever use of the form to debunk famous children's icons like Snow White, Humpty Dumpty and the Little Engine that Could to literalize common expressions familiar to young readers. Cordell's signature spare line drawings prove particularly effective in conveying the latter, as in "While you were buying / doll dresses / I sanded off / your Barbie's face [...] Forgive me / her beauty / was only / skin deep," while a girl comes screaming across the page spread as a delighted boy kneels intently over the scribbled-out, faceless doll. Macabre, sometimes downright mean, this mischievous collection is sure to engage the devilish side of readers of all ages. (Illustrated poems. 6 & up)



Publishers Weekly (February 27, 2012)

Levine models more than 40 poems after William Carlos Williams's "This Is Just to Say," taking its quasi-repentant tone to a whole new level (and sticking more closely to the format of the original than the poems in Joyce Sidman's 2007 collection This Is Just to Say). Cordell's pen-and-ink art is sprinkled with impish people, animals, and personified objects. Several poems reference nursery rhymes, literature, and fairy tales ("I, Rapunzel,/ and not the witch/ have lopped off/ my braid/ which/ you daily/ climbed/ to me/ Forgive me/ you're not worth/ the pain/ in my scalp"), and Levine has fun with readers, too, mock-threatening those who skip around the book ("Forgive me/ I put the curse of the mummy/ on anyone/ who reads out of order"). Poetry fans fine-tuning their sense of sarcasm need look no further. Ages 6-9. Agent: Ginger Knowlton, Curtis Brown. Illustrator's agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.



School Library Journal (February 1, 2012)

Gr 4-6-Levine fashions her introduction to the topic after a poem by William Carlos Williams-"This Is Just to Say"-in which he 'fesses up to having eaten some plums from the icebox ("Forgive me/they were delicious/so sweet/and so cold"). The "false apology" poems (Levine's designation) include three four-line stanzas. The first states the offense; the second describes it; the third lays out the false apology (based on what came before). In a note on creating this novel poetic form, Levine advises readers: "Your poems should be mean, or what's the point?" Many of her unrhymed selections relate to fairy-tale or nursery-rhyme characters (Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, Jack and Jill), and some have particularly wicked twists: Grandma leaves Red Riding Hood to the wolf; the bear goes over the mountain and dies in a landslide. Others involve intentionally hurtful actions against a sibling-sanding the face off a sister's Barbie doll; stealing a brother's lucky baseball cap just before the state playoff. Black-ink-and-pencil drawings-many of them bizarre images of people, animals, and unearthly beings-accompany the verses. While the collection is supposed to be funny and to appeal to readers' dark sense of justice, it largely comes off as distasteful and even disturbing. Forgive me, there's got to be a better way to engage this audience with poetry.-Susan Scheps, formerly at Shaker Heights Public Library, OH (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.



School Library Journal (May 1, 2013)

Gr 4-6-These spare, sly poems use inference to tell tall tales of deceit and betrayal among family members, friends, and fairy-tale characters. "I have shortened my nose with your saw/because honestly telling lies is so much fun./Forgive me I don't care about becoming a real boy." (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

[Sarah Kahleifeh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poetry compilation book, is funny, dark, and truthful all at once. It shows a side of the author that may change people's opinions about her, but it also tells the truth and the truth is that every person probably has this side whether they like it or not. The poems in this book start with a subject or a story, then go on to tell about the reaction to that subject, then spew on the apology, which is defintiely not a real apology, since the subject is something quite harsh. The poems take on a dark edge because there is an ulterior motive in what the subject is saying, and most of the time there are these situations in real life. For instance, one of the poems says "Spreading across your skin is an itchy blistery rash whcih was deliberately caused by yours truly planting poison ivy on your lawn Forgive me next time pay me for mowing". Obviously they don't really want to be forgiven, they want to be payed. In real life, if you do something for someone, seldom you are supposed to return the favor. So cue the comedy of spreading poison ivy on someone's lawn when they don't properly thank you for a favor you did for them. There are many other's like this, always one person benefitting or getting humor out of someone else's tragedy and asking them to forgive that person, and maybe it does take another darker humorous soul to laugh at these poems, but there can be lessons taken out of them. You can show them to upper elementary students, aged 10+, and tell them that not everyone will take you for who you are. There are systems in the world that you must follow, and perhaps this is too big of a lesson to be teaching younger children, but there can also be humor taken out of this. The quote, "you scratch my back, i'll scracth yours" comes to my mind when I read some of these poems, and others are just plain horrific. Some will justify that you must fend for yourself, and I believe that is also a good lesson to teach. Overall, I enjoyed reading these poems very much.

[Lauren Slanker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It is a book of illustrated poetry that reminded me of my Shel Silverstein days, where I would take his book of poems and laugh out loud to myself as I read through his words and looked at his descriptive pictures. Gail Carson Levine and Matthew Cordell have managed to channel Silverstein in their own way in their book of poetry. The poems are all in the same style; a style that William Carlos William created in his poem "This is Just to Say" (with whom Levine shares a birthday!). Since all poems in the book are titled the same name, the very informative table of contents lists all of the poems as "This is Just to Say" with various page numbers. Levine also places her introduction several pages into her book (much to the chagrin of her editor!) and includes a page of background information in what seems is a random place in the book.

Overall, the poems in the book are funny and many of them made me literally "lol". Many of them are based on fairy tales, such as one that describes Red Riding Hood's grandmother running away so that at least one of them can live. There were a couple of poems that I didn't understand, which may be because I'm not familiar with the fairy tale they're referring to. The artwork is simple and sketch-like, similar to Shel Silverstein. The pictures add a lot to the poems, and sometimes I did not really understand the poem until I saw the picture. I would use this book to show alternate perspectives for fairy tales and also as examples of irony and sarcasm in writing. It would be perfect for an upper elementary classroom, but could be used with older grades as an example of how to write funny poems. This book was a 2012 notable poetry book, which is where I found the title.

[Jessica Meyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

2012 list for Notable Poetry Books

People are constantly apologizing when they don't really mean it. We often apologize because we have to, or "it's the right thing to do." This is the perfect book for anyone who is feeling annoyed or frustrated with someone. Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It is brutally honest and hilarious! It has 46 fake apologies and a useless table of contents. Although the narrator of each poem says "Forgive me," it is clear that the apology is just a sham. The narrators in the poem have no remorse for their crimes. Crazy things happen- snow white apologize to the dwarves for leaving with the witch, but she admits she is only doing so because they have terrible manners. The author of the poem writes her own fake apology, in which she explains that she shredded the editor's red pencil and stirred the splinters into the editor's tea! It is very clear, however, that she feels no guilt or shame about her behavior. This is an excellent book to use in a children's classrooms. Students can analyze the poetic elements while still laughing and enjoying poems. It also can lead to some great lessons on "tone" and "author's purpose." What a fun way to incorporate poetry into the curriculum!