This slim volume of 50 poems and the haunting, edgy photographs illustrating it caught my attention because author Christine Heppermann takes familiar fairy-tale characters and ideals and puts them through a bracing wash of feminism. What comes out is a collection of razor-sharp poems aimed squarely at the unrealistic expectations of beauty and "hotness" heaped primarily upon the heads of young women but which can catch and trap women of any age.
The poems, which are often bitingly funny, explore serious topics. For instance, "The Never-Ending Story" deals with anorexia. It begins: "Once there was a girl who wore her bones outside of her body/ Once there was a girl who thought bones looked nice." A later stanza contains these lines: "Once there was a girl who longed to be brave/ enough to stick her finger down her throat/ to measure herself by the teaspoon/ to shrink herself to the size of a serving." Heppermann illustrates we shouldn't be surprised when girls and women react to one of society's most caustic beauty expectations - you MUST be thin - by starving themselves until they are so small they literally disappear (death).
Several other poems take on anorexia as well. One, titled "Blow Your House In," equates the subject of the poem to each of the three houses from "The Three Little Pigs" - "She used to be a house of brick/ point guard on the JV team. " and continues with metaphors that illustrate the power and strength of the female character. Yet by the end of the poem, this character, too, is subject to body-image issues, and readers follow her efforts to erase herself. Poignantly, the final stanza begins: "Now she's building herself out of straw" as she breaks under her own, and society's, unrealistic beauty expectations.
Another issue covered by the poems is body-shaming. In "Nature Lesson," Heppermann takes direct aim at dress codes that tell girls to cover up their "dangerous" bodies lest they distract the boys around them from their studies. She asks darkly: "If a hiker strays/ off the path, trips, and/ winds up crippled/ is it really/ the canyon's fault?"
Heppermann asserts the normal, developing bodies of girls and teens are not the problem. The problem is adults who call for ever more coverage and policing of the female body while absolving boys of responsibility for inappropriate behavior - which begs the question: if leggings in middle school can be blamed for lack of focus in algebra class, does a short skirt excuse rape at a fraternity party? Of course not. So Heppermann asks only that our expectations of boys be raised to include knowing the proper, rational reaction to the sight of a spaghetti strap.
Some other poems in the "Poisoned Apples: Poems for You My Pretty" collection are "Sleeping Beauty's Wedding Day," "The Elves and the Anorexic" and "A SHAPE MAGAZINE Fairy Tale." I thoroughly enjoyed Heppermann's biting take on fairy-tale tropes. Some made me laugh, and some brought me up short as Heppermann eloquently exposed an ugly, brutal truth. I highly recommend this collection of poetry. It's especially powerful for teen girls.
Lisa Sanning is adult services librarian at Missouri River Regional Library.