Loved it! Really, really good poetry, really good story.
On a side note the author seems like a really awesome person-living in LA, likes rock shows. Love some of the movies she co-wrote, too! ( )

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. ( )

A novel in verse, The Geography of Girlhood provides a poetic glimpse into the tumultuous world of a teenaged girl. Narrator Penny Morrow chronicles her life from ages 14-18 in free-form verse, detailing her world of sadness, awkwardness, confusion, anger, resentment, and small victories, all told with a disarming detachment. The verses are deceptively bite-sized and easy to ingest; she doesn't wallow in her misery or reveal too much of her personal angst, but you can sense it in the white space of the pages.

Author Kirsten Smith, who helped write a number of screenplays about teenagers (10 Things I Hate About You, Ella Enchanted), expertly inhabits the mind and body of a confused teenager who has moments of clarity. Penny has a lot of personal issues to deal with -- an absent mother, her father's remarriage, a popular older sister, infatuation and first kisses, changing friendships -- and the verse form helps keep things succinct and to the point. No superfluous words, just the facts. It reminds us how difficult it can be to come of age. ( )

Smith's novel tells the story of Penny's journey through high school in a series of poems. While the trope could be tiresome, Smith's use of each poem as sort of a vignette of an individual moment or day in Penny's life is instead a lovely collage that creates the picture of who Penny is and who she's becoming. I also find that the use of poetry to portray moments is a more realistic way to narrate the time, because in all honesty, our memories aren't smoothly-written and transitioned narratives from one day to the next, they're a collection of times and people and events patched together, some standing out more than others. Smith captures the restlessness of being a teenager in a small town nicely, and I will probably be searching for a copy of this novel to give to a teenaged relative who's currently about to enter high school in a small town as well.

This was the first novel in verse that I have read and I really enjoyed it. Each poem gave you a sense of Penny and how she felt about each of the events in her life. The story moves her through various events in life, helping her realize who she is and making her feel more comfortable in her life. Not all of her decisions are good decisions, but she learns from each of them. One part I particularly liked is that she takes her step-brother under her wing in the way she always wished her older sister would have done for her (pg 183).