How to (Un)cage a Girl

by Francesca Lia Block

A celebration of girls and women in a three part poetry collection that is powerful, hopeful, authentic, and universal.

Genres: Poetry, Young Adult, Fiction, Fantasy, Teen, Feminism, Magical Realism

128 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2008

About the author

Francesca Lia Block is the author of more than twenty-five books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association and from the New York Times Book Review, School Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly. She was named Writer-in-Residence at Pasadena City College in 2014. Her work has been translated into Italian, French, German Japanese, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Portuguese. Francesca has also published stories, poems, essays and interviews in The Los Angeles Times, The L.A. Review of Books, Spin, Nylon, Black Clock and Rattle among others. In addition to writing, she teaches creative writing at University of Redlands, UCLA Extension, Antioch University, and privately in Los Angeles where she was born, raised and currently still lives.

Reviews

[Rossy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not my thing, but I give it 2 stars because I think "Popular girl", "A myth of love for girls", and "Forty-five thoughts for my daughter and my virtual daughters" are amazing.

[Marguerite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you for sharing a piece of your soul. It spoke to me.

[Cassidy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now, this is not one of those reads a wide range of people would enjoy. However because I am:

a) female
b) fifteen
c) a poet and a reader of poetry
d) relatively open to all sorts of weird stuff

I was bizarrely taken by this thin little book. I mean, to be fair, I opened the first page and was like, "Um, no, I'm not reading a book that is ENTIRELY in lowercase. That is absurdly pretentious." I still stand by that opinion but with any other poetry book it would have been a deal-breaker. How to (Un)cage a Girl by Francesca Lia Block sort of- this phrase will never come out of my mouth again, so enjoy it- made the lowercase poetry thing work (I want to punch myself right now) and at the very least made up for it. The earthy nature of the writing was jarring to me at first, but it grew on me and by the end of the book I realized it would have been completely forgettable without the frank and slightly shocking tone. I even cranked out a poem of my own afterwards.

If the above criteria apply to you, or if you're some sort of 100% completely nonjudgemental literary saint, you'd probably start appreciating this book after the initial WHOA-this-is-kind-of-messed-up-and-unsettling. So hear ye female teen indie poets of the world! Check out this unexpectedly endearing cache of hardcore verse!

[jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book because I once loved FLB, and here is one of her books that I haven't read, so of course I have to read it. But here it is, two stars. It's not that I can't appreciate good poetry, but mostly that the sort of angst, sorrow, mourning, lonely tragedy/difficulties of girlhood and womanhood translate into poetry in a way that is just sublimely irritating to me. So, it's hard for me to discuss the poetry because it's just not my thing. Many apologies to the angsty, healing lady poets I'm insulting right now.

But, in reading this book, I did happen upon a deep insight that may change my world view. It occurred to me that Jenny Schecter (L Word Character) is like a knock-off version of FLB. Jewish, Los Angeles, childhood trauma, queer tendencies, writer, etc etc etc. Is FLB getting some royalties from Ilene Chaiken? Just Curious.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of poetry is by the author of the stupendous Weetzie Bat, my favorite YA novel ever! After I finished the WB Yeats collection in September, I went to my shelves and found only three books of poetry: an already read collection of Edna St Vincent Millay, The Standard Book of British and American Verse published in 1932, and a signed advance reader copy of these poems by Block. That night I opened How to (Un)cage a Girl and resumed my new poem-a-day practice.

There is no doubt that these poems come from the unique sensibility of Francesca Lia Block. Magical, emotional, probably auto-biographical. In three sections she does teenage years, young woman years, and more mature woman years.

The poems express the secret thoughts of women. While they are set in a world of adventurous, sometimes misbehaving females, I think that even the most proper, well-behaved women have these secret thoughts and feelings.

I just ordered Sylvia Plath's Ariel. Female poetry is what I need these days. Are you reading poetry? If yes, what?

[Lo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a complicated history with FLB, on one hand she's written some of my most loved books and also some I deeply loathe. I didn't much care for this one at all. I can't tell if the poetry is fabulous because she wrote it or if it's saying something so new about girlhood that I missed it.

I think it's even worse than Jewel's book of craptastic poetry.

[Bridgett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poetry about the author's experience as a female, but widely applicable. I don't know if I always related to it, but I'm strange. I related to some of it and could imagine the rest.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book.

The overall theme of poetry for girls is something I've always really liked. I appreciate the fact that some, not all, of the poems in this book aren't written in the whole

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so that was a plus. But to be honest, there were only two poems that I thought I could really connect with — "Forty-five Thoughts for My Daughter and My Virtual Daughters" and the other being "Popular Girl".

I would have enjoyed this so much more if I read it when I was a bit younger.

[Swankivy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think what I like about this collection is that some of its poems make a world out of teenage girldom. We can forget so fast what the world is when we were that age, and later in our lives poems about all the feelings and magnified sorrows and devastation over such seemingly minor events can seem a little petty, but to tell the truth, they aren't. They're right for that time in your life, and people who aren't forced to deal with adult woes before their time experience them like this--pieces of beauty, love, realizations, revelations that are framed as if they're the deepest thoughts in the world--and you can remember a little bit how small your world was and how big it felt. Maybe you can even look at your own life and realize it's probably smaller than you know too.

And then there are the poems that ARE about big things--about disease, about culture and being both a participant in it and a victim of it, about self-destruction, about losing someone you love--and those manage to connect to a larger picture to put it in perspective for everyone who has or hasn't been there.

I don't personally relate to really anything in the poems, though--I didn't have much experience with the kinds of disasters she describes, and I wasn't the same kind of girl. I didn't lose anyone important to me in my youth and I didn't hurt myself or have self-hating thoughts or experience significant disease. Boys judging my appearance did nothing to me, I didn't crave their attention, I didn't admire the movie stars, I wasn't lonely, I didn't have sex or make out with people to feel glamorous or cared for. I had absolutely no interest in being like a movie star and paid little to no attention to whether I was fashionable or pretty (and to be honest, Ms. Block's preoccupation with that last in just about everything she writes gets on my nerves). As usual, lush descriptions of things people are wearing or what their physical appearance is like takes up a lot of real estate in this book. To be perfectly honest, the fixation on clothing details and makeup and whatnot--while it does paint a pretty specific picture if that's what you're into--doesn't do much for me when trying to imagine what I'd actually look for in a photograph. I wouldn't remember what someone was wearing, but I'd remember the look on their face, or how they had their hands poised, or what I thought they wanted to do next based on the presentation. I feel like so many of these images are posed for me and I'm told "look!" but when that's all that's there in so many of the images, I have no emotional attachment to them.

But I can see some things to relate to anyway. I especially liked one line where the speaker discusses being part of her boyfriend's "collage," serving a certain purpose that she no longer served once they had sex, and she realizes he was part of HER collage too. I found that to be an empowering thought. I also liked one where the speaker discussed actresses as icons and then as the women she'd realized they were. (I didn't like that they were about specific actresses that you could recognize, though--it was just sort of weird to me.) And I thought one poem was very sweet where the author expressed dissatisfaction with her physical appearance and all the changes she'd made to make it better, until she felt like she'd become someone else, and then a teenage girl wrote her to say she didn't feel pretty and the author was able to take her own advice and "slept peacefully in [her] own arms."

This may just be because I'm not much of a poetry scholar, but I tend not to like Ms. Block's poetry form. It feels sort of uneven, unstructured, and a little rambly most of the time, like it's just spilling thoughts everywhere and once in a while ends a line in the middle or puts a word on its own line for Emphasis. I think I'd like to see an occasional poem with more structure or something that is more than just an expression of an important or powerful idea. Ms. Block's prose is generally a little flowery. This poetry book just kind of feels like it's her usual writing topics but with the same ideas arranged into lines instead of expressing part of a larger narrative. I noticed one piece in each of the three sections was an unpunctuated, undivided ramble and I thought that was an interesting thing to do, but it didn't seem to have any particular significance--it was just there.

I was glad to see there were a few poems in there from an older woman's perspective that seemed to recognize things are more important than beauty and that beauty can be dangerous if you want it in a way that can kill you. It doesn't seem like the author has too many moments where she talks like this, but I appreciate them even as I appreciate that she can admit her insecurities and her fixations. I like when she writes about her children and about the bigger picture beyond L.A., pretty clothes, and physical beauty. Some of those observations remind me why I've written the poetry I have.

[Carrie (brightbeautifulthings) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve loved Francesca Lia Block since the first time I read one of her books. I took a summer class in YA literature, and I remember sitting at the bottom of my stairs during a tornado warning reading Weetzie Bat and being kind of okay about the fact that there wasn’t a basement in my apartment complex. I quickly blew through all the Dangerous Angels novels, including Pink Smog and Necklace of Kisses, along with a smattering of her other books. I have more of them on my TBR, but since this one was a gift from S, it jumped to the front of the line. She was even cool enough to underline some of her favorite lines and mark her favorite poems with little hearts, and I’m not sure I’ve ever loved bookmail more (and that’s saying a lot).

How To (Un)Cage a Girl is a collection of poetry in three parts, tracing the path from girlhood to womanhood. It touches on issues of body image, fitting in, eating disorders, 9/11, loss of loved ones, the pain of relationships, and the way girls love and destroy one another.

For such a small book, it sure packs a hell of a punch. I read it over breakfast and cried a few times; I was a wreck by the end but, you know, in the best way. In that way that lets you know you’ve read something true about what it means to be a human, particularly a female one. There aren’t a lot of books that tap into how grim it is to be a girl, to not feel at home in your own body, to feel jealous of other girls when it would be better to love them, how difficult it is to fill the empty spaces in your own heart and how some of them never will be.

The writing itself is beautiful and lyrical. Block weaves in myths and mermaids, fairies and ghost-memories of girls to tell her stories. Some of my favorites are “a myth of love for girls”, “l.a. bacchantes”, “the little mermaid: for ama”, and “the face”, all of them with lines and themes that really hit home for me. The best part was that I felt like I was having a conversation with S through her margin notes while I was reading, like “the face” was written for the two of us.

The autobiographical parts are particularly devastating; I had no idea Block suffered from anorexia or that she’d lost a parent to cancer. It sounds as though she’s been through more than one divorce, and yet here she is, surrounded by strong, beautiful women and capable of loving herself, and forgiving herself. Although it’s the penultimate poem in the collection, “forty-five thoughts for my daughter and my virtual daughters” is a mix of advice and musing and a powerful end to the collection. I think every girl who reads this should give it to another girl, and I already have one in mind. Thank you for sharing it with me, star sister. <3

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviewed by Lauren Ashley for TeensReadToo.com

HOW TO (UN)CAGE A GIRL is a short collection of poetry for and about girls. Told in three parts, these poems deal with many facets of life that women must deal with, from being a teen to becoming an adult. This is a book about life: the ups and downs, the pressure, the joys, the pain. This tiny book includes it all.

I enjoyed the book very much, and found the modern approach to poetry to be interesting and refreshing. It was a bit hard to understand at parts, but definitely enjoyable overall.

One of my favorite entries in this collection was one titled Media Queenz, which addresses all the singers and actresses that girls tend to idolize. I think the following line from this poem explains it best:

"where were our pradas? our pouts?
our captivating glances?
only later we would grow up
and realize that these women were just women"

This is a perfect novel for any girl who ever felt unworthy or like they didn't fit in. We are all our own people, and this book celebrates that.

With the holidays approaching, this small book would make a great stocking stuffer, as well!

[Stefani · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of poetry communicates how hard it can be to be a girl and difficult it is to love yourself sometimes. Good things happen, bad things happen, relationships develop and die; basically, life happens. A lot of the poems are beautifully descriptive; some, I just didn't get. It's obvious how these poems are based on real life, not works of fiction. There is also a consistency throughout the book of stories resurfacing.

I would recommend to older teen girls and adult women. A good read for someone wanting to see how poetry can be story telling and an emotional outlet.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry, but I just can't relate to any of the girls in these "love" poems. There were a few individual poems that I liked, such as "Vampire in the City of Lost" and "Forty-five Thoughts for My Daughter and My Virtual Daughters." I wonder how many of these poems are autobiographical? I must look into her background... I won't say I recommend this book or not, as poetry is a highly subjective thing. Teenage girls would probably love it.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, but I was a little confused. The poems read like the ones I wrote in high school. Does that mean the poems I wrote in high school were good enough to be published? Or are these poems published only because FLB wrote them?

[michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

really surprised i had never read francesca lia block back when i was a teen! i wish i had. there’s a rawness here that i know i cannot fully appreciate at this point in my life. that might sound a little patronizing, considering block herself was decades older than i currently am when this was published, but i don’t mean it to be. i just mean it in the sense that i know it would have meant more to me before. or maybe it wouldn’t— i was a weird kid, and femininity seemed more alien to me then than it seemed to have for block’s target audience (although obviously the inherent alienness/alienation of femininity is a huge motif here). regardless, reading this collection felt like witnessing someone tend to an open wound. it’s very tender

[antitheticaldreamgirl13 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy Hell! I am not one that intentionally opts to read poetry. The meanings behind the long, drawn-out sentences are just too much for me to wrap my head around. But this! How to (Un)cage a Girl was the book of poetry that I didn't know I was looking for! Powerful as fuck poems for all women to read!

[Terry]

Teen reluctant reader: I picked this book because I liked it better than the other choices. It did change after the first chapter. It was pretty mild poetry, but there was a raw vibe to it. I did like the book. It was very interesting and imaginative. I loved the talk that is poetic. I don't like to read, but if I had to buy a book, it would be in this category.

[Katie Kaste · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of poetry from Francesca Lia Block. I love Block's writing. She has a very primal style that speaks to the lost girl in all. She writes poems that reach and address all girls wherever they are and whatever aspect of life they are in. I loved these poems and marked about 10 I want to go back to and reread.

[Chandni · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think is a semi-autobiographical book of poems that Francesca Lia Block wrote for teen girls. Not only is it supposed to be motivational, it tells the story of her life (obviously really simplified). I feel like I would have been more moved by it if I were a teen girl. While I appreciate their lyricism, they don't make much of an emotional impact.

[Jason Robinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps I am not the right person to rate these poems, as I am a middle aged man, and not a young woman, with young women being the target audience. I just simply couldn't relate, and therefore didn't enjoy reading this.

[Tara Schuhmacher · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was a few poems that were ok to good, but for the most part it wasn't my cup of tea.

[Ley · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 3.5.

I loved some of the poetry but some of it was super fixated on a few aspects.

[Charity Rau · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the poems were good, but the others were ehh... to depressing for me.

[Olivia Duffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

these poems make me feel comfortable in my female teenage body. love.

[Claudia Ult · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection I often return to. I love the imagery and the different characters we come across.

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection of poems about fiesty, fabulous women.

[Jessie (Zombie_likes_cake) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm, I think FL Block is a lot more poetic when she writes complete stories. And that my own poetry is really not that bad at all no matter how narcissistic that might sound.
I found this collection very limited. Of course, a writer has a certain style but I had the feeling of reading the same poem over and over, the variation in form, structure, topic and atmosphere were extremely samey turning into dull. Teen angst and body image dominate thematically which would be totally fine if there was a more scattered approach, there are different angles to get a point across and there are different angles to the point itself. Additionally, when Block obsesses on female attractiveness it is hard to believe the message of how it doesn't matter in the long run. I admit, I never cared much for stream-of-conscience poetry writing with no paragraphs and punctuation and Block does that a lot but I have read poems in this style that touched me, here that was hardly the case.
I really enjoy her fairy tale like novels and stories, I enjoy a fair share of YA literature and movies and believe I can relate to teenage targeted issues well enough but in this collection I only encountered minimal moments that touched me, that I found interesting. So much in these poems is plain obvious, there is no getting lost in them, flowing with them, thinking about them, feeling them, discovering more on reading them twice....
I only liked 3: "fourteen: europa", "valentina screama" and "for karen: whose last name I can't recall". There were a few others I liked okay enough but many I found redundant and unimaginative, I missed the creative, more metaphorical way many of her stories are written in.
Maybe it is written for teens, but that is not an excuse, so much art (movies, books, music...) that is primarily for teens manages to hold something interesting or at least reminiscent for older folks, sadly here I couldn't help but wondering if it only got published the way it did because Block is famous and people think teenagers cannot handle more,maybe they enjoy the "I could have written this"-momentum, I don't know, I know I am disenthralled and hope another of her novels will give me back what these poems stole from my relationship with Block.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you were ever a young girl, growing up through adolescence, this book is for you. Francesca Lia Block lyrically address the ups and downs of being a teenager, and the things that we think about at that age. Some lives are broken, and some lives glitter, but every girl should know they have a voice. This book is one voice among the masses. If you adore Francesca, you know this has to be fantastic.

I love Francesca Lia Block, so really a book of poems about adolescence was a no-brainer for me to pick up. This one definitely did not disappoint. I had read it a few years ago when it first came out, and recently picked it up again to share at out libraries Poetry Night. All of Francesca's early works were written in the same seamless prose as these poems are, so it was such a joy reading these. I just love the magical world that Francesca Lia Block creates within our regular day-to-day lives. Some of these poems are heartbreaking, others uplifting, all of them are beautiful. I loved the poem 'forty-five thoughts for my daughter and my virtual daughters' I think it represents exactly what I hope every young girl gets to know. This poem starts:
"i always believed if i had blond hair, pixie face,
big breasts
everything would be all right
not realizing that culturally idolized beauty
is not only foolproof
but potentially dangerous"
I think this is a great little book to give as a gift, for yourself or for that young girl in your life.

First Line:
"i thought my teacher was a nazi"

Favorite Line:
"yxta and francesca decided to start a clique
for frail but surprisingly strong fairies who had lost
their way above ground
for burned mermaids and sick vampire girls
for wild wolfish women with sharp teeth and leaves
in their hair"

Read more: http://www.areadingnook.com/2011/06/r...

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This slim volume of Weetzie Bat’s creator Francesca Lia Block’s poetry is a collection of subtle (and not-so-subtle) messages of feminism and what it means to grow up as a woman in this culture. The first section is a year-by-year series on the themes of sexual awakening and the need for independence from parents while still desperately needing parenting. The poems in this section give voice to the struggle to be an adult while still wanting to be taken care of, touching on the illness and death of a parent, body issues and sexuality, and the general goofiness of teens hanging out with their friends. The second section is on media images of women and the unfair expectations put upon girls in their adolescence. This short section is the weakest of the collection, full of references that are timely and relevant but will likely seem dated a few years from now. The third section (which makes up the majority of the book) is where the collection comes together, though. Titled "love poems for girls," they are exactly that, poems of empowerment and strength, of reassurance, of empathy. These are the poems that have the most useful, universal messages of valuing oneself and taking comfort in who you are.

While Block's language isn't always poetic in a flowy, flowery way, and her rhythm is not a strict iambic pentameter (or anything else, for that matter), the rhythm of her words has a lyricism to it that never feels clunky or forced. Her poems do sound like an adult talking to a teen, but never talking down to the teen. Sometimes all a girl needs is to know someone else has actually been there and lived through it.

This slim volume of poetry didn't always light my world on fire, but many of the poems are things I think I would have appreciated reading when I was in high school.

[Cheyenne Teska · Rating 4 out of 5]

How to (Un)cage a Girl is beautiful, tragic, and inspiring- as is most of Block's work. I'm a huge fan, so I'm always happy to find others that enjoy her books too.

The first few poems focus on a teenage girl's life, beginning at age fourteen and continuing until age nineteen. Being a teenage girl, I can relate to the text on the paper. It wasn't too long ago that I had to deal with first getting my period, the urges and pressure to have sex, looking in the mirror and hating what I see, and losing a parent. The writing is honest and it seems to fit most kids' day to day lives.

The second set of poems focus on the pressure that the media has put on women. It's about jealousy and fear and expectancy. It's been put into our heads at a young age that we have to look or act a certain way or else we won't be pretty or desirable. Francesca captures that feeling perfectly, and I've dealt with a lot of that growing up.

The third- and largest- section of the book is called "love poems for girls". Don't let that fool you. It's not romantic or blissful. Nor is it naive. These poems are real. They fill you up with a sense of strength; no matter what, you can carry on with life and be happy.

Overall, this book of collected poems piece together to create one big picture that is called life. It's real and raw and there's no way you can deny that you haven't felt one of the many emotions held within the pages of this book. This was a very quick read but I'll recommend it to all my girls out there.