Poisoned Apples

Starred review from September 8, 2014
In a potent collection of verse, Heppermann melds fairy-tale imagery with lacerating commentary about the demands that society makes on women and girls. The results are excoriating and nearly impossible to forget. “Once upon a time there was a girl who/ had a good hair week!” opens a magazine-style twist on Red Riding Hood. “Seven cute looks/ she could do at home, and their names were/ Waves, Bun, Bangs, Braid, Sleek, and/ Party-Ready Ponytail.” Other poems examine eating disorders, consent, and body image, but while Heppermann illuminates many bitter truths, she also celebrates women’s ability to surmount the societal, systemic forces seeking to box them in. “If I was a good girl,/ if I could satisfy their cravings... I might have stayed at the table,” reads “Gingerbread.” “Wouldn’t you run, too,/ from such voracious love?” Ages 13–up. Agent: Tina Wexler, ICM.

Starred review from July 1, 2014
A slim volume sharp as knives.Lacing traditional fairy tales through real-life perils, Heppermann produces short poems with raw pain, scathing commentary and fierce liberation. There's no linear arc; instead, girls buck and fight and hurt. One poem takes the expression "You Go, Girl!" literally, banishing anyone with "wetness, dryness, tightness, looseness, / redness, yellowing, blackheads, whiteheads, the blues." In a structure heartbreakingly inverted from "The Three Little Pigs" (and nodding to "Rumpelstiltskin"), one girl's body goes from "a house of bricks, / point guard on the JV team" to "a house of sticks, / kindling in Converse high-tops," until finally "she's building herself out of straw / as light as the needle swimming in her bathroom scale. / The smaller the number, the closer to gold." She's her own wolf, destroying herself. Sexual repression, molestation and endless beauty judgments bite and sting, causing eating disorders, self-injury, internalization of rules-and rebellion. A hypothetical miller's daughter says, "No, I can't spin that room full of straw into gold. / .... / No, I can't give you the child; / the child will never exist." Gretel's act of eating will literally rescue Hansel; Red Riding Hood reclaims sexual agency, declaring, "If that woodsman shows up now, / I will totally kick his ass."Full of razors that cut-and razors to cut off shackles: a must. (author's note, index of first lines, index of photographs) (Poetry. 13-17)

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July 1, 2014

Gr 8 Up-Traditional folk and fairy tales collide with feminist observations of modern beauty and hygiene culture in this compilation of 50 free verse and easy to read poems. Each one grapples with the state of femininity with caustic wit, heavy with criticism. Readers will also be treated to moody and eye-catching artwork that complements the poems perfectly. The accessibility of the poems coupled with the striking book cover and photos will appeal to a wide range of readers. The poems should spark interesting questions and insights for contemplation about obtaining a pop culture-derived, air-brushed perfection. One weakness is a failure to consider diversity in femininity; more feminine readers might find the poems slightly insulting because of a tone of disdain toward beauty culture. Overall, however, this is an engaging and enjoyable volume.-Mindy Whipple, West Jordan Library, UT

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 15, 2014
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* In 50 free-verse poems, Heppermann offers revisionist views of such traditional fairy tales as Snow White, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, and more. Each of her verses is offered in the context of the modern lives of young women, who must confront the difference between the promises of sugar-coated fantasy and the bitter lessons of real lifelives that are often plagued by such problems as self-image, sexual harassment, anorexia, loneliness, and self-loathing. Thus, a bitter Eve is the first anorexic; the giant's daughter goes to the prom with greedy little Jack but longs for a man she can look up to; Miss Muffet diets until she is so small that the spider can wrap her in his web for later ingestion; Cinderella's ugly stepsister binges; Red Riding Hood wants to cohabit with the sexy wolf; the erstwhile ugly duckling has second thoughts about beauty; and more. As for tone and spirit, one could exhaust a thesaurus searching for words adequate to describe these selections: angry, acerbic, bleak, bitter, caustic, and cutting, and those are only the first three letters of the alphabet. As for content, look elsewhere for inspiration, but linger here for hard-edged truth. And while you're reading, enjoy the black-and-white photographic illustrations, which capture the tone and echo the occasional obscurity of each poemfor although the literal meanings are not always immediately forthcoming, the haunting, evocative sensibility evoked is ever and impeccably present.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)