What do you think?
Rate this book
The Geography of Girlhood
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 death, her crush on a teacher, her father's new marriage, her protective relationship of her younger stepbrother, and, always, her longing for her missing mother. Overcome by the pain in her life, Penny runs away with her sister's ex-boyfriend, but realizes it's a mistake and returns home to heal. The geography metaphor and wanderlust theme successfully connect the poems, some of which were published previously in literary journals, and the emotions of high-school and small-town life are beautifully expressed: "nothing ever happens / and if it does / all the things with wings / fly away."
192 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2006
8 people are currently reading
1062 people want to read
About the author
Kirsten "Kiwi" Smith
28 books115 followersKirsten Smith is a screenwriter and authors. She co-wrote LEGALLY BLONDE, 10THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU, SHE'S THE MAN and ELLA ENCHANTED. She co-wrote and executive produced THE HOUSE BUNNY and THE UGLY TRUTH. She executive produced WHIP IT.
She has written two YA novels, THE GEOGRAPHY OF GIRLHOOD and TRINKETS, the latter of which is being made into a Netflix series, due out in 2019.
She has had over 40 poems published in literary magazines like The Gettysburg Review, Shenandoah and The Massachusetts Review.
She has also co-written two graphic novels, MISFIT CITY and SMOOTH CRIMINALS.
A native of the Pacific Northwest, she lives in Los Angeles with her MISFIT CITY & SMOOTH CRIMINALS co-author Kurt Lustgarten and their two dogs.
She has written two YA novels, THE GEOGRAPHY OF GIRLHOOD and TRINKETS, the latter of which is being made into a Netflix series, due out in 2019.
She has had over 40 poems published in literary magazines like The Gettysburg Review, Shenandoah and The Massachusetts Review.
She has also co-written two graphic novels, MISFIT CITY and SMOOTH CRIMINALS.
A native of the Pacific Northwest, she lives in Los Angeles with her MISFIT CITY & SMOOTH CRIMINALS co-author Kurt Lustgarten and their two dogs.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
May 5, 2008
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 book.
Penny's older sister, Tara, was blessed with the beauty, and the ability to cut her sister down with only a glance. Her father's hope is simply that his daughters will have listened to him enough to stay away from bad boys and make a place for themselves in the world. And as for her mother? She left when Penny was six, and the only thing Penny has to remind her of her mom is a snow globe. Now she has a stepmother, and a younger stepbrother, and a family life that can be summed up with "don't be like your sister."
For Penny, life is confusing, with the fights her friends have regularly and the first kiss that makes her faint and the huge infatuation she has on her sister's boyfriend. But behind it all is the wish that her mother would just come home, would be returned by the aliens who abducted her or whatever, and make everything better. For Penny, watching her father change and her sister change and herself change is too much to take without a mother. But years pass, and when she finally gets one thing that she wants--which is Bobby--it's not at all like she expected, and she loses friends and gains new acquaintances and still, in the back of her mind, she wants her mother.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF GIRLHOOD is sweet and bitter, a poignant story filled with joy and heartbreak about growing up and learning to let go and first love. Thankfully, this is a book told in verse that you won't soon forget, a definite recommended read.
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 book.
Penny's older sister, Tara, was blessed with the beauty, and the ability to cut her sister down with only a glance. Her father's hope is simply that his daughters will have listened to him enough to stay away from bad boys and make a place for themselves in the world. And as for her mother? She left when Penny was six, and the only thing Penny has to remind her of her mom is a snow globe. Now she has a stepmother, and a younger stepbrother, and a family life that can be summed up with "don't be like your sister."
For Penny, life is confusing, with the fights her friends have regularly and the first kiss that makes her faint and the huge infatuation she has on her sister's boyfriend. But behind it all is the wish that her mother would just come home, would be returned by the aliens who abducted her or whatever, and make everything better. For Penny, watching her father change and her sister change and herself change is too much to take without a mother. But years pass, and when she finally gets one thing that she wants--which is Bobby--it's not at all like she expected, and she loses friends and gains new acquaintances and still, in the back of her mind, she wants her mother.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF GIRLHOOD is sweet and bitter, a poignant story filled with joy and heartbreak about growing up and learning to let go and first love. Thankfully, this is a book told in verse that you won't soon forget, a definite recommended read.
June 22, 2022
i normally don’t like poetry but this was so easy to read and so true!
January 12, 2011
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 called love if it doesn't last, but Kirsten Smith portrays Penny as a girl of chaos and a girl trying to grow up, without a mother, without a real path to follow. That she can love from afar from close, realise it wasn't mean't to be, that in life that happens sometimes.
i just really love how she explains things too, like at the end of how she is just floating in the middle of her life. Even though it was a short read, it was a quick glance at maybe what we can say "girlhood" really is.
I'm not sure yet, since we all travel down different lives and have different impacts, but I sure did like this book.
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 called love if it doesn't last, but Kirsten Smith portrays Penny as a girl of chaos and a girl trying to grow up, without a mother, without a real path to follow. That she can love from afar from close, realise it wasn't mean't to be, that in life that happens sometimes.
i just really love how she explains things too, like at the end of how she is just floating in the middle of her life. Even though it was a short read, it was a quick glance at maybe what we can say "girlhood" really is.
I'm not sure yet, since we all travel down different lives and have different impacts, but I sure did like this book.
January 12, 2011
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 how you are born,
love is how you ruin your life.
So when people ask, I want to tell them
that whatever this was,
it definitely wasn't that."
"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 how you are born,
love is how you ruin your life.
So when people ask, I want to tell them
that whatever this was,
it definitely wasn't that."
April 15, 2009
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.
May 8, 2013
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 Girlhood starts, Penny is just fourteen. Having rowed herself out into the middle of the bay to contemplate her life she thinks: “One day, I’ll find my way away from here/ and go somewhere real/ and do something great/ and be someone wonderful.”
Of course, the problem with being a teenage girl is that there’s a whole lot of crap to wade through before you get that “someone wonderful.” Fourteen, Penny intones, “is like rotten candy.”
The novel, told in free verse form, follows Penny from the end of grade nine until just after her sixteenth birthday.
Penny is jealous of her perfect, older sister, Tara, her “long torso,/ the breasts lodged high/ like tea cakes/ on her powdery skin.” She longs to experience “love” as she imagines it exists between Tara and Bobby, her sister’s boyfriend. “I look at her/ and memorize everything./ So when the time comes,/ and the boy’s eye glitters like a crime,/ I will know what to do.” We learn about Penny’s complicated feelings for the mother who left her, who, in fact “always wanted to leave wherever she was.”
Readers will recognize themselves in Penny. While it’s true that fourteen was a L-O-N-G time ago for me, I can totally remember that feeling that ”you look good only once a week/ and it’s never on the day of the dance.”
Penny navigates the treacherous geography of her girlhood, in language that is both poignant and pointed. She falls in and out of love in the way of all teenaged girls. She makes stupid choices and does stupid things, but she is also smart and resilient and open to all the possibilities life has to offer.
“If anyone tells you that life is predictable,/ DO NOT BELIEVE THEM,” she remarks.
I really enjoyed this book.
When The Geography of Girlhood starts, Penny is just fourteen. Having rowed herself out into the middle of the bay to contemplate her life she thinks: “One day, I’ll find my way away from here/ and go somewhere real/ and do something great/ and be someone wonderful.”
Of course, the problem with being a teenage girl is that there’s a whole lot of crap to wade through before you get that “someone wonderful.” Fourteen, Penny intones, “is like rotten candy.”
The novel, told in free verse form, follows Penny from the end of grade nine until just after her sixteenth birthday.
Penny is jealous of her perfect, older sister, Tara, her “long torso,/ the breasts lodged high/ like tea cakes/ on her powdery skin.” She longs to experience “love” as she imagines it exists between Tara and Bobby, her sister’s boyfriend. “I look at her/ and memorize everything./ So when the time comes,/ and the boy’s eye glitters like a crime,/ I will know what to do.” We learn about Penny’s complicated feelings for the mother who left her, who, in fact “always wanted to leave wherever she was.”
Readers will recognize themselves in Penny. While it’s true that fourteen was a L-O-N-G time ago for me, I can totally remember that feeling that ”you look good only once a week/ and it’s never on the day of the dance.”
Penny navigates the treacherous geography of her girlhood, in language that is both poignant and pointed. She falls in and out of love in the way of all teenaged girls. She makes stupid choices and does stupid things, but she is also smart and resilient and open to all the possibilities life has to offer.
“If anyone tells you that life is predictable,/ DO NOT BELIEVE THEM,” she remarks.
I really enjoyed this book.
August 1, 2008
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 several problems with this novel: first, it’s the voice. I really didn’t feel Penny spoke for contemporary teens. It felt as if Kirsten Smith drew on the angst of her own teen years (which I suspect would have been the 80’s, same as mine). There’s just something off or dated about the book. Secondly, the character’s names and the fashion described within the book again seem outdated (Penny, Denise, Bobby…wearing polka dots to a dance!)? Finally, the characters all had the flavor of go no where trash. I simply had no sympathy for them at all.
I didn’t identify with this novel. I think you had to have had a stormy girlhood or a dramatic nature to get most of this. There are many maps of life to follow. This was nothing like mine
There are several problems with this novel: first, it’s the voice. I really didn’t feel Penny spoke for contemporary teens. It felt as if Kirsten Smith drew on the angst of her own teen years (which I suspect would have been the 80’s, same as mine). There’s just something off or dated about the book. Secondly, the character’s names and the fashion described within the book again seem outdated (Penny, Denise, Bobby…wearing polka dots to a dance!)? Finally, the characters all had the flavor of go no where trash. I simply had no sympathy for them at all.
I didn’t identify with this novel. I think you had to have had a stormy girlhood or a dramatic nature to get most of this. There are many maps of life to follow. This was nothing like mine
June 13, 2010
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 figure it out. It would have been nice if Kirsten Smith had decided to empower Penny to be better than her sister, better than her popular obsessed friends, but that didn't happen. Pretty much this book says: "It is normal to screw up your life when bad stuff happens. Actually, it is expected. Go ahead--make bad choices! This is the excuse you've been waiting for!"
I will say there are a couple of poems that are good. All of the book isn't total crap, just most of it. I really enjoyed the verse titled "For the Ice-skater He loves". It had a great voice. It was witty and had great metaphors. If only the entire book was like this one poem.
I will say there are a couple of poems that are good. All of the book isn't total crap, just most of it. I really enjoyed the verse titled "For the Ice-skater He loves". It had a great voice. It was witty and had great metaphors. If only the entire book was like this one poem.
September 16, 2007
A novel in verse. There seem to be more of these than there used to be. This one has a likeable protagonist, but I thought the execution lacked depth and resonance. I think I would have enjoyed the novel that's hovering just behind the poetry.
November 6, 2019
A "novel in verse." The author Kirsten Smith has been printed in some top journals like Gettysburg Review. She was also the co-writer of some top movies: Legally Blonde, 10 Things I Hate About You, Ella Enchanted, and She's the Man.
I think teenage girls will like the book a lot.
I think teenage girls will like the book a lot.
March 5, 2018
Books that are in verse format are not my thing. I admit before reading The Geography of Girlhood by Kirsten Smith, I had never read a book written in this format before and it threw me off completely. The Geography of Girlhood has a main character by the name of Penny. She talks about the different stages of a girl’s life. She talks about her family, particularly her sister who she isn’t sure she likes, two guys that she dated, and the infatuation that is tied to teenage romance. An obvious conflict in the novel is how messy and chaotic a teenage girl’s mind can be no matter the age. All teenagers can relate to that on some level, and I remember as a teenager not really feeling comfortable talking about issues either. It makes me smile to know at least that hasn’t changed much. As for the audience, I believe this is targeted toward teenage girls between thirteen to sixteen because that is the time where nothing makes much sense. It seems like one part of life might be figured out, but then something small (in this case I’d blame Bobby, the sister’s ex-boyfriend) can blow it all up and you’re left picking up the pieces and trying to make them fit again. The teenage years are filled with so much emotion, anxiety, pain, and happiness that it is a wonder that teenagers can string two sentences together and sound intelligent sometimes. I’m not 100% sure I would say this about Penny by the end of the book, but she definitely changes in a way that reminds the readers there might be something better out there if we slow down and take it one step at a time. I think we can all agree that the teenage years sometimes feel like a race car speeding down the tracks at 100mph with no sign of slowing down. If a reader is looking for a book where the story doesn’t have to make sense and doesn’t mind the format not being in typical paragraph format, then I might recommend this book, but on a rating scale, I’d have to give it 2 out of 5. It wasn’t written badly, but the voice, although accurate, and the pacing made me feel like I was pulling teeth to get to the end.
April 16, 2023
(copied from my book review blog: Patricia's Particularity)
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 way of relating to a teenage girl coming of age. Her clever use of geography images and symbolizes defines the truth that most girls (and women) are not as clearly defined as one may think. Just like Geography and Nature, a girl's emotions, thoughts, and adventures are anything but simple and normal.
While there were a few times when it was unclear what Kirsten Smith was trying to say, through her use of over done symbols and imagery, one message beyond "geography" rang true in this Verse Novel: Mother. As Penny maps out her life without the guide (a key so to speak) of a mother she learns that does not need to be reliant on such a key and finds her own way to create her own individualistic "map".
Overall, The Geography of Girlhood was a nice quick read that the entire female gender can relate to in one way or another - whether that be the many "loves" we go through, the "it's the end of the world" attitude about things, and even the realizations that come with growing up. For me the use of symbolisms was a bit overdone. It did get confusing at times - for example, how exactly did Penny's best friend become crazy and why? Certain aspects such as this would have contributed to making the novel better if more detail was given. But again, poetry and verse are not always apparent and push us to read between the lines. In the end, Smith's novel was a very nice read and recommended for everyone.
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 way of relating to a teenage girl coming of age. Her clever use of geography images and symbolizes defines the truth that most girls (and women) are not as clearly defined as one may think. Just like Geography and Nature, a girl's emotions, thoughts, and adventures are anything but simple and normal.
While there were a few times when it was unclear what Kirsten Smith was trying to say, through her use of over done symbols and imagery, one message beyond "geography" rang true in this Verse Novel: Mother. As Penny maps out her life without the guide (a key so to speak) of a mother she learns that does not need to be reliant on such a key and finds her own way to create her own individualistic "map".
Overall, The Geography of Girlhood was a nice quick read that the entire female gender can relate to in one way or another - whether that be the many "loves" we go through, the "it's the end of the world" attitude about things, and even the realizations that come with growing up. For me the use of symbolisms was a bit overdone. It did get confusing at times - for example, how exactly did Penny's best friend become crazy and why? Certain aspects such as this would have contributed to making the novel better if more detail was given. But again, poetry and verse are not always apparent and push us to read between the lines. In the end, Smith's novel was a very nice read and recommended for everyone.
May 21, 2022
REVIEW: The Geography of Girlhood, Kirsten Smith
RATING: 2.75/5 stars
This novel in verse is life changing for all of the wrong reasons. Smith’s writing is SO STRONG in some segments of the text, and many lines were genuinely poignant or relatable to my high school experience. But the moment you call your crush your “13 colonies” is when you lose me. And the RANDOM SEXY KENTUCKY POEM?! What was that?
I guess that’s just the general vibe of this book. You read some great lines and then you cackle over “Touching Bobby.” The continuity often makes no sense and there are some pretty large gaps in the timeline. I’m just generally flabbergasted and highly recommend the experience, if not the book itself.
RATING: 2.75/5 stars
This novel in verse is life changing for all of the wrong reasons. Smith’s writing is SO STRONG in some segments of the text, and many lines were genuinely poignant or relatable to my high school experience. But the moment you call your crush your “13 colonies” is when you lose me. And the RANDOM SEXY KENTUCKY POEM?! What was that?
I guess that’s just the general vibe of this book. You read some great lines and then you cackle over “Touching Bobby.” The continuity often makes no sense and there are some pretty large gaps in the timeline. I’m just generally flabbergasted and highly recommend the experience, if not the book itself.
March 8, 2025
I really only read it so I could get it off my bookshelf and into a little free library without the guilt.. but I'm keeping it. I feel like I really grew up with Penny from 9th to 11th grade in a way that was subtle but powerful which is more impressive because the verse makes it a quick morning coffee on a Sunday read. The stories and relationships she tells about love, family, mental health, and teenage rebellion transcend time and culture (even if the low-rise jeans and lace tank top on the cover imply otherwise). Highly recommend. Keeping it on my bookshelf for my future daughters to love one day.
January 8, 2024
I read this as research for my own YA Novel in Verse. I overall liked the story, it was a quick read, as most verse novels are. That teenage angst, growing, changing, family dynamics on full display here.
October 24, 2017
Typically I do not get into the books in verse, but this one was well done. It had it's moments of good writing. I would recommend it.
January 7, 2023
DNFing at over 50%. Didn't love the use of verse in this novel.
June 2, 2023
it was sooo good wouldn’t read it again tho
April 19, 2011
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 way of relating to a teenage girl coming of age. Her clever use of geography images and symbolizes defines the truth that most girls (and women) are not as clearly defined as one may think. Just like Geography and Nature, a girl's emotions, thoughts, and adventures are anything but simple and normal.
While there were a few times when it was unclear what Kirsten Smith was trying to say, through her use of over done symbols and imagery, one message beyond "geography" rang true in this Verse Novel: Mother. As Penny maps out her life without the guide (a key so to speak) of a mother she learns that does not need to be reliant on such a key and finds her own way to create her own individualistic "map".
Overall, The Geography of Girlhood was a nice quick read that the entire female gender can relate to in one way or another - whether that be the many "loves" we go through, the "it's the end of the world" attitude about things, and even the realizations that come with growing up. For me the use of symbolisms was a bit overdone. It did get confusing at times - for example, how exactly did Penny's best friend become crazy and why? Certain aspects such as this would have contributed to making the novel better if more detail was given. But again, poetry and verse are not always apparent and push us to read between the lines. In the end, Smith's novel was a very nice read and recommended for everyone.
Kirsten Smith's use of Free-Verse offers a new point of view and way of relating to a teenage girl coming of age. Her clever use of geography images and symbolizes defines the truth that most girls (and women) are not as clearly defined as one may think. Just like Geography and Nature, a girl's emotions, thoughts, and adventures are anything but simple and normal.
While there were a few times when it was unclear what Kirsten Smith was trying to say, through her use of over done symbols and imagery, one message beyond "geography" rang true in this Verse Novel: Mother. As Penny maps out her life without the guide (a key so to speak) of a mother she learns that does not need to be reliant on such a key and finds her own way to create her own individualistic "map".
Overall, The Geography of Girlhood was a nice quick read that the entire female gender can relate to in one way or another - whether that be the many "loves" we go through, the "it's the end of the world" attitude about things, and even the realizations that come with growing up. For me the use of symbolisms was a bit overdone. It did get confusing at times - for example, how exactly did Penny's best friend become crazy and why? Certain aspects such as this would have contributed to making the novel better if more detail was given. But again, poetry and verse are not always apparent and push us to read between the lines. In the end, Smith's novel was a very nice read and recommended for everyone.
December 2, 2014
The benefit of the novel-in-verse is that it pauses to examine moments in detail. Without prose you lose the narrative force and the explanatory background, but you gain a collection of feelings, sensations, dots in an impressionist painting. In connecting the dots, we become participants in creating the story.
Of course the downside of most novels-in-verse is that most novelists are such crappy poets but here, for once, the poetry is actually good.
Sometimes, good poetry comes at the expense of story-telling. In a regular novel, when your worst high school enemy suddenly decides to be your friend, some explanation is required. Not here. From one poem to the next, relationships can turn on a dime. And we don't even get to see the dime.
It's a quick read about an engaging girl with enough plot developments to fill a much longer novel. I wish we'd had a few more moments examined, maybe filling in more of the gaps, but really I complain too much. This is a most enjoyable book.
Of course the downside of most novels-in-verse is that most novelists are such crappy poets but here, for once, the poetry is actually good.
Tonight, my dad calls me outside.That poem (preceded by a more graphic one) is confirming for us, more or less, that she's just lost her virginity.
At first I think he's found out
where I was last night
or what I did,
but all he wants to say is that
tonight there's a meteor shower,
big bath of stars
that comes once a century.
I knock out a laugh of relief
and we stand under the night sky
which seems to be falling to pieces all around us.
He pulls me close and says my little girl
and for a moment
it's as if he knows
that I'm not anymore.
Sometimes, good poetry comes at the expense of story-telling. In a regular novel, when your worst high school enemy suddenly decides to be your friend, some explanation is required. Not here. From one poem to the next, relationships can turn on a dime. And we don't even get to see the dime.
It's a quick read about an engaging girl with enough plot developments to fill a much longer novel. I wish we'd had a few more moments examined, maybe filling in more of the gaps, but really I complain too much. This is a most enjoyable book.
March 27, 2014
I just finished “The Geography of Girlhood” by Kristen Smith. I rate this book a 4.5 out of 5. It was really good and I like the format of the book how it’s in poetry form. This book is about a girl named Penny who is ready to be in love and escape away from home. She wants an adventurous guy like her sisters boyfriend Bobby. Her sister is a rebel and does makes some bad choices with Bobby. Penny has a boyfriend, who is one of the most popular guys in school, and after a little while of dating, she realizes hes just not that into him. Eventually Penny’s sister cheats and breaks up with her boyfriend, than Penny goes after him. Penny and Bobby drive away together and she loves him, she kisses him, and she is happy. But when Bobby asks her to be a rebel just like her sister ,and rob a store, she realizes she doesn’t want to be a rebel. She just want’s Bobby to bring her home. I think Penny would find the right guy, who treats her right and is not so much of a rebel. I think she would get closer with her stepbrother also.
-OW
-OW
December 18, 2014
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 manages to both keep it consistent and age believably as time moves on and life works its maturity magic. Some of the poems worked incredibly well - "Denise" on 64, "Just Friends" on 75 - and the overall quality was better than most verse-novels I remember reading (and so many are forgettable). I'll be pointing readers to this.
Penny's voice is particularly clear, and Smith manages to both keep it consistent and age believably as time moves on and life works its maturity magic. Some of the poems worked incredibly well - "Denise" on 64, "Just Friends" on 75 - and the overall quality was better than most verse-novels I remember reading (and so many are forgettable). I'll be pointing readers to this.
January 24, 2010
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 were shown. But in terms of the poems, they were beautifully written, but still accessible, using metaphors that were decidedly not cliches, but which were extremely relatable to the experiences of teenagers. I'd certainly rank Kirsten Smith's writing right up there with that of Sonya Sones.
June 15, 2011
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 it never ascends to the level of Jynx (The author of which escapes me) which does this formula with much more compelling, albeit more dramatic fodder. If you have good chic lit, I need it. Still waiting for that Sarah Dessen to come out of hold.
October 7, 2011
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 a young son, and trying to create a new blended family when for so long it was just the three of them, finally pushes Penny into trying out some of her own wildness - only to discover that this 'small town, small town' is right where she wants to be.
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 a young son, and trying to create a new blended family when for so long it was just the three of them, finally pushes Penny into trying out some of her own wildness - only to discover that this 'small town, small town' is right where she wants to be.
February 11, 2015
When Penny's mom leaves two weeks after giving her a globe telling her she'll always be somewhere on it Penny is left with her dad and older sister. Eventually her dad remarries and she has a step brother who she doesn't like. When she starts high school people say she's going to be "killed" by a upperclassman for talking to her. Her friends from middle school leave her. After years of Penny wanting her sisters boyfriend that's what she gets, but after she has it she doesn't want it. Running away seemed like a good idea, until a drunk boyfriend won't drive her home. All she wants is a place in this world, but will she find it? I would not recommend this book because it was slow moving and not interesting.
April 8, 2008
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 to inference, and you don't want to miss half the book because you don't understand picnic references to slicing someone's hotdog.
April 21, 2009
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 make mistakes. Either way, however, her story is a real, believable, and heartbreaking one that any teenage girl will like to pick up.
Thus, Penny must navigate the choppy waters of adolescence by herself. Sometimes she gets things right, but most of the time she’ll make mistakes. Either way, however, her story is a real, believable, and heartbreaking one that any teenage girl will like to pick up.
May 19, 2011
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 poem titled: The Hand of Kentucky, which I thought was just a bit erotic for a teen book, but which as an adult I could appreciate.
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 poem titled: The Hand of Kentucky, which I thought was just a bit erotic for a teen book, but which as an adult I could appreciate.
August 6, 2011
3.5 This was an interesting book written in prose. It was short and sweet and to the point. It's amazing how Smith knew exactly how a teenage girl thinks. She really channeled thar thought process with the main character Penny. Penny is a stereotypical teenage girl who believes that she knows everything there is to know about making the right decisions. Smith shows readers through the important time period in Penny's life where she learns how to be a teenager. How to take things one step at a time and enjoy the experience. The Geography of Girlhood was a book that felt real and emotional.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews