The Geography of Girlhood

THE GEOGRAPHY OF GIRLHOOD by

Category: Contemporary

Age Recommendation: Grades 9+

Release Date: 3/1/06

Publisher: Little, Brown

Reviewed by:

Rating: 5 Stars

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

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