Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It

Starred review from February 27, 2012
Levine models more than 40 poems after William Carlos Williams’s “This Is Just to Say,” taking its quasi-repentant tone to a whole new level (and sticking more closely to the format of the original than the poems in Joyce Sidman’s 2007 collection This Is Just to Say). Cordell’s pen-and-ink art is sprinkled with impish people, animals, and personified objects. Several poems reference nursery rhymes, literature, and fairy tales (“I, Rapunzel,/ and not the witch/ have lopped off/ my braid/ which/ you daily/ climbed/ to me/ Forgive me/ you’re not worth/ the pain/ in my scalp”), and Levine has fun with readers, too, mock-threatening those who skip around the book (“Forgive me/ I put the curse of the mummy/ on anyone/ who reads out of order”). Poetry fans fine-tuning their sense of sarcasm need look no further. Ages 6–9. Agent: Ginger Knowlton, Curtis Brown. Illustrator’s agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio.

January 15, 2012
A playful primer on insincerity for budding poets. Taking as a springboard William Carlos Williams' famous pseudo-apology, "I have eaten / the plums / that were in / the icebox [...] Forgive me ...," Newbery Honor-winner Levine and illustrator Cordell unleash their darker sides in offering children several imaginative occasions for issuing false apologies. One glance at the volume's contents listing poems all taking Williams' title "This Is Just to Say," and readers instantly clue into Levine's glib project, which she then explains and invites others to imitate some 20 pages into the volume--much, she admits, to her editor's chagrin. While many a poet has spoofed Williams in similar fashion and chosen this found poem's simple form to introduce children to imagistic self-expression (Kenneth Koch most memorably), what distinguishes Levine's project is her clever use of the form to debunk famous children's icons like Snow White, Humpty Dumpty and the Little Engine that Could to literalize common expressions familiar to young readers. Cordell's signature spare line drawings prove particularly effective in conveying the latter, as in "While you were buying / doll dresses / I sanded off / your Barbie's face [...] Forgive me / her beauty / was only / skin deep," while a girl comes screaming across the page spread as a delighted boy kneels intently over the scribbled-out, faceless doll. Macabre, sometimes downright mean, this mischievous collection is sure to engage the devilish side of readers of all ages. (Illustrated poems. 6 & up)

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February 1, 2012

Gr 4-6-Levine fashions her introduction to the topic after a poem by William Carlos Williams-"This Is Just to Say"-in which he 'fesses up to having eaten some plums from the icebox ("Forgive me/they were delicious/so sweet/and so cold"). The "false apology" poems (Levine's designation) include three four-line stanzas. The first states the offense; the second describes it; the third lays out the false apology (based on what came before). In a note on creating this novel poetic form, Levine advises readers: "Your poems should be mean, or what's the point?" Many of her unrhymed selections relate to fairy-tale or nursery-rhyme characters (Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, Jack and Jill), and some have particularly wicked twists: Grandma leaves Red Riding Hood to the wolf; the bear goes over the mountain and dies in a landslide. Others involve intentionally hurtful actions against a sibling-sanding the face off a sister's Barbie doll; stealing a brother's lucky baseball cap just before the state playoff. Black-ink-and-pencil drawings-many of them bizarre images of people, animals, and unearthly beings-accompany the verses. While the collection is supposed to be funny and to appeal to readers' dark sense of justice, it largely comes off as distasteful and even disturbing. Forgive me, there's got to be a better way to engage this audience with poetry.-Susan Scheps, formerly at Shaker Heights Public Library, OH

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2012
Grades 2-5 *Starred Review* Mean-spirited mischief and gruesome scenarios are part of the fun in these fractured-fairy-tale poems, which include wry takes on the Brothers Grimm, Mother Goose nonsense, and popular folklore. Written in the form of false apologies inspired by William Carlos Williams' poem This Is Just to Say, the accessible free verse, along with wild line cartoons, shows the ugly standoffs and power plays between familiar characters. Snow White leaves willingly with the witch rather than staying with the dwarfs, who snore, pick their noses, and never bathe. Rapunzel lops off her braid, telling her would-be suitor, You're not worth / the pain / in my scalp. The Beast burps after gobbling down Beauty for breakfast, then asks her father for another daughter. The princess always knew about the pea, which helped immeasurably / in faking / the true princess test. In an author's note, Levine includes Williams' poem and encourages readers to write their own false-apology verses, in your own cruel ways. But, she warns, You have to be mean and grouchy. Of course, the subversive, cranky tone is the appeal, as is the close look at popular sayings: ever thought about what it means to say Blood is thicker than water ? Readers will enjoy sharing the surprising selections, which will make them rethink what they thought they knew.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2012
Levine unapologetically riffs on William Carlos Williams's poem "This Is Just to Say" in this collection of light verse that shows readers there's a lot more to be un-sorry about besides purloined chilled plums. With gleeful abandon, she looks to fairy tales and nursery rhymes for subject matter, as when she tells the Itsy Bitsy Spider to get a life; "This is just to say / I have torn / down / the water / spout / which / you obsessively / wanted to climb up / and slide off forever / Forgive me / kick your habit / spin a web / catch a bug." Other scenarios have kids taking revenge on adults -- planting poison ivy, for instance, on a skinflint's lawn with the caveat "Forgive me / next time / pay me / for mowing." Accompanied by an appropriately scruffy, subversive black-and-white cartoon, each poem mimics Williams's structure. The humor level of the collection is uneven, but Levine's spirited encouragement of readers (in an "introduction" that she cheekily places twenty pages into the book) to take Williams's form and write their own false apology poems will likely be heeded. After all, who can resist her permission to "get yourself into a grouchy mood" because these poems "should be mean, or what's the point"? christine m. heppermann

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2012
Levine unapologetically riffs on William Carlos Williams's poem "This Is Just to Say" in this collection of light verse that shows readers there's a lot more to be un-sorry about besides purloined chilled plums. Accompanied by an appropriately scruffy, subversive cartoon, each poem mimics Williams's structure. Levine's spirited encouragement of readers to write their own false apology poems will likely be heeded.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)