Review: Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It

Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It: False Apology Poems
By Gail Carson Levine, illustrated by Matthew Cordell
Expected publication March 13, 2012 by HarperCollins

At the very beginning of this blog, I reviewed This is Just to Say, another book that takes a classic poem by William Carlos Williams as its inspiration. However, this book is a little different. See, Gail Carson Levine is mean. And she is not sorry.

This is a short but wonderful book of poetry inspired by a well-known poem. Levine takes a number of fairy-tale characters and has them write false apology poems, with hilarious results. She also includes some poems written by ordinary folks, apologizing (well, not really) for ordinary indiscretions. I think this book will be a big hit with kids - it's short but it's hilarious. It revisits a lot of things that kids already know about (the aforementioned fairy tale characters) but can also teach them a thing or two. Levine puts her introduction in the middle of the book (for which she writes a false apology to her editor) and here she explains why she wanted to write this book, as well as giving instructions for how to write your own false apology poems. This book would be perfect for the classroom or a book club because it has a built-in extension activity! The illustrations are simple but funny. Levine has a built-in audience from her extremely popular chapter books, so I hope this book is a big hit. I highly recommed it!

Thanks to the publisher for an advance reader's copy.