blue lipstick: concrete poems written by john grandits

Grandits, John. Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007. ISBN: 9780618851324.

Critical Analysis:

     Blue Lipstick is a compilation of concrete poetry that describes the life of a teenage girl. The author utilizes concrete poetry, which is a style of poetry that visually illustrates the content of the poem. In the poem, "All My Important Thinking Gets Done in the Shower," there is an illustration of a shower head with words that seemingly flow out of it. Not only do these words flow out of the shower head, but they are also blue. The author, John Grandits, utilizes symbolism by depicting the words as the color of water, as well as the illusion of the words flowing. 

     Not only does the author provide visual appeal to this compilation, but he also uses language in a manner that is naturally appealing to children. In the poem, "Zombie Jocks," the author utilizes a technique where he seemingly makes up words to create an end rhyme. Despite the author making these words up, they're exactly how children talk. For instance, the words win-em, pin-em, skin-em, evoke a familiarity in how children run their words together. Instead of separating the words win them, children combine them together and pronounce it as one word -- win-em. The inclusion of such words, end rhymes, and visual components all combine in naturally appealing to children.

Spotlight Poem:

"All My Important Thinking Gets Done in the Shower"

                                      - John Grandits

Connections:

• Have children create their own concrete poetry. Begin with something simple as drawing a car and having them write on the outline of the car about ideas that come to them relating to a car.
• Choose a particular poem and prior to reading it, ask children what the image conveys to them and compare if they were close what the content of the poem included.