In order to uncage the girl within, you have to love her, heal her, and set her free. There are moments every girl knows: The pain of wanting to fi t in. The joy of being consumed by love. The shame of not feeling at home in your body. The strength in learning you're beautiful. Francesca Lia Block follows the journey from girlhood to womanhood in this soaring three-part poetry collection. Exploring those unspoken feelings and words—the thorny, sparkling moments that chain us to ourselves—Block gives a startlingly personal voice to girls and women everywhere. From School Library JournalGrade 9 Up—These poems traverse the steep climb from girlhood to womanhood while unearthing the hard truths hidden within this journey. Divided into three parts—"years at the asylum," "in the hair of the toxic blonde," and "love poems for girls"—the collection touches on anorexia, self-love and loathing, parental relationships, superficiality, losing one's virginity, rape, and love and loss. Block celebrates womanhood, but not in a bubblegum, girl-power way. Plathian symbols abound, from pervasive father issues to Nazi comparisons to insane asylums, real and imagined. The poems feel simultaneously autobiographical and universal. While the death of the narrator's father in "a myth of love for girls" colors her search for a partner, the universal struggle of women to escape or find their father's image in future relationships is aptly captured. The final selections cross into the territory of life lessons learned well beyond the teen experience and perhaps ring too much like motherly advice, but the raw authenticity of the narrator's voice throughout overshadows any later departure. Teenage girls, especially sophisticated, angst-filled poetry readers, will devour this insightful and powerful collection.—Jill Heritage Maza, Greenwich High School, CT Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistBlock once again mixes characters from fairy tale and myth—vampires, mermaids, fairies—in this collection of urban poems that contrast menace and beauty; innocence and heartbroken experience; despair and bold confidence. As in her recent story collection, Blood Roses (2008), the works frankly discuss body image, sex, and love, and subjects that stretch into adult life, with poems about marriage, divorce, and motherhood. Luxuriant imagery of roses, feathers, and glitter contrast with dark, menacing scenarios of girls and women threatened by men and by their own brutal judgment, with vibrant, sometimes cruel Los Angeles as a constant backdrop. Eating disorders figure into many poems, as does advice on finding joy. There is hope in the beautiful title poem, which speaks about the limitless freedom that can come with self-acceptance, and young women will easily relate to the many selections about teen naïveté and restlessness: “just us girls all in shiny pink / waiting for something to happen.” A stirring exploration of female suffering and empowerment, this will attract Block’s adult readers, too. Grades 11-12. --Gillian Engberg

Izzy Ames lives with her high school sweetheart, Cyrus Rivera, in the Salton Sea. They cling to each other and to their close friends Nephy and Seth to cope with the trauma of their pasts. Until the morning Izzy awakes to find Cyrus has vanished.When she realizes no one will help, Izzy takes matters into her own hands and decides to search for Cyrus alone. After weeks of looking for him, she discovers a clue that leads her to the House of Hearts retreat center run by the mysterious Sky. At House of Hearts, Izzy meets an intriguing musician named Ever Fontana and for a moment she is able to forget the pain of her past. But when new clues about Cyrus' disappearance surface, Izzy must go down into the dark to find the truth.Izzy's quest will take her into a world of sexuality, madness, and violence, where she will discover life-changing secrets not only about Cyrus but, ultimately, about herself.

But this is what I could not give up: I could not give up myselfPsyche has known Love—scented with jasmine and tasting of fresh oranges. Yet he is fleeting and fragile, lost to her too quickly. Punished by self-doubt, Psyche yearns to be transformed, like the beautiful and brutal figures in the myths her lover once spoke of. Attempting to uncover beauty in the darkness, she is challenged, tested, and changed by the gods and demons who tempt her. Her faith must be found again, for if she is to love, she must never look back.

The girl in the mirror wasn't who I wanted to be, and her life wasn't the one I wanted to have. Despite how much Louise insists, no one will call her Weetzie. It's her dad's nickname for her, but it won't stay put. Neither will her dad. Charlie left Louise and her mom and he took everything with him: her family, her home - and her understanding of who she's meant to be. But Los Angeles is a city full of strange angels, and Louise embarks on a journey to sift through the smog of her heartbreak, to grow her own wings, to become Weetzie.

This is the story of two girls, racing through space like shadow and light. A photo negative, together they make the perfect image of a girl. Violet is the dark one, dressed in forever black, dreaming Technicolor dreams of spinning the world into her very own silver screen creation. Claire is like a real-life Tinker Bell, radiating love and light, dressing herself in wings of gauze and glitter, writing poems to keep away the darkness. The setting is L.A., a city as beautiful as it is dangerous, and within this landscape of beauty and pain Violet and Claire vow to make their own movie. Together they will show the world the way they want it to be, and maybe then the world will become that place--a place where people no longer hate or fight or want to hurt. But when desire and ambition threaten to rip a seamless friendship apart, only one thing can make two halves whole again--the power of love.Francesca Lia Block's latest novel is a beautifully told story that boldly combines...

A Midwestern girl named for the jewel that is believed to ward off evil spirits, Ruby has a sixth sense that makes her at one with nature and gives her the ability to know her own fate. After growing up in an abusive family, Ruby escapes to Los Angeles and learns of her soul mate, Orion, a British actor. She travels to England, where she works at a potions and herbs shop, and through a series of coincidental circumstances, she ends up nursing Orion back to health without confessing that she has been on a quest to find him all along. But just when she thinks her dream is becoming a reality, Ruby is stopped in her tracks by the violent demons of her past. Only by facing the darkness together can she and Orion finally fulfill their destiny. Francesca Lia Block, the beloved author of the Weetzie Bat series and Necklace of Kisses, and cowriter Carmen Staton enchant us with a modern-day fairy tale featuring an unforgettable heroine in a world...

Once upon a time in the city of Shangri-L.A., someone left a baby on a doorstep. She had wild, dark hair and purple eyes and looked at the world in a special way. The family that took her in called her Witch Baby and raised her as their own. But even though she tried to fit in, Witch Baby never felt as though she truly belonged. So one day she packed her bat-shaped backpack, put her black cowboy-boot roller skates, and went out into the real world to find out who she really was...." In] this sequel to the extraordinary Weetzie Bat, Witch Baby is at odds with her complicated family. She's a glowering personality whose excesses trouble both herself and others. Still, Witch Baby's quest for meaning ends on an up beat and] generosity and love triumph in a far-from-perfect world. Block uses] exquisitely crafted language to tell a story whose glitzy surface veils thoughtful consideration of profound contemporary themes." -- SLJ. 1992 Recommended Books for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (ALA)Best Books of 1991 (SLJ)1992 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)

Dirk MacDonald, a sixteen-year-old boy living in Los Angeles, comes to terms with being gay after he receives surreal storytelling visitations from his dead father and great-grandmother.Dirk MacDonald, a sixteen-year-old boy living in Los Angeles, comes to terms with being gay after he receives surreal storytelling visitations from his dead father and great-grandmother.

Francesca Lia Block, critically acclaimed author of Weetzie Bat, brings this eerie and redemptive ghost story to life with her signature, poetic prose. It's perfect for fans of supernatural stories with a touch of romance like the Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.After Julie's grandmother passes away, she is forced to move across town to the not-so-fancy end of Beverly Hills and start over at a new school. The only silver lining to the perpetual dark cloud that seems to be following her? Clark--a die-hard fan of Buffy and all things Joss Whedon, who is just as awkward and damaged as she is. Her kindred spirit.When the two try to contact Julie's grandmother with a Ouija board, they make contact with a different spirit altogether. The real kind. And this ghost will do whatever it takes to come back to the world of the living.Francesca Lia Block's latest young adult novel is a haunting work about family, loss,...

In a little house from another time, with lace curtains in every window and paintings hung in gold doily frames, Wildflower, Rockstar, and Miss Selene live a warm and cozy life. They wear fancy dresses, bake play-dough cakes, and spend their days enjoying one another's company.For the three dolls, life is small but good.But life is not good for Madison Blackberry, the owner of the dollhouse. Her grandmother pays more attention to the dolls than to her. The dolls have one another, but she is lonely in her big, empty apartment.Then one day, as things always do—even for dolls—everything changes.This beautiful story from the acclaimed team of Francesca Lia Block, author of such novels as Weetzie Bat, and Barbara McClintock, author and illustrator of many picture books, including Adèle & Simon, brings to life the power of love, family, and friendship.