"How to (un)cage a girl" by Francesca Lia Block

This is a young adult book for ages 14+ and I highly recommend keeping these poems for this age level audience or above. There is some graphic language and some graphic scenes that may not be suitable for even 14 year old's unless they are mature and can handle this kind of material. This author writes about growing up as a girl dealing with love, loss, happiness, heartbreak, insecurities and how she views herself as she grows and matures. Personally I had a rough 8th and 9th grade year, so a book like this would probably make me feel like I was not alone if I had the opportunity to read something like this when I was younger. Many girls go through these experiences and this is just one way to express your feelings.

I am going to share one of the many poems I enjoyed reading from this author.

Pain is like an onion:

remove one layer and the next is there
keep peeling, my beloved
peeling and chopping
putting in the pan
fry it to translucency
and eat it
let it digest
it's only been a year and a half
since he took your heart from your chest
peeled it chopped it fried it ate it spit it out

and eventually a new one will grow back
eventually
the tears
will stop

I felt like most of the poems that were written in this book had a lot of emotion and meaning behind the words. I know how hard it is to go through middle school and high school and even though it may seem unimportant and silly now, those trials and obstacles that we faced at the time were not easy to go through.