Lover Girl

Plot Summary: Lover Girl is a collection of poetry that follows a teen girl who longs for love. She doesn't think she is beautiful enough to be noticed by the boy she likes. She often feels regret over her ex-boyfriend and how she lost him. As the poems progress, the girl comes to be happy with who she is.

Author Background: Raegan Fordemwalt started writing poetry as a younger teen. She started uploading videos to TikTok and Instagram where she did spoken word performances of her poems. Encouraged by the success of her social media accounts she self-published Lover Girl. She also illustrated the book (Fordemwalt, n.d.).

Critical Evaluation: The book has been well received by readers. The most common observation is how deep the poems are. Some of the older reviewers seemed surprised that a teen could write poems with emotion and meaning (Amazon.com, n.d.). I wasn't surprised. Raegan's presence on social media is one of thoughtfulness and understanding. Whether in print or on the computer, the poems are well written.

Speed-Round Book Talk or Short Book Trailer: Here's a book of poetry written by an actual teen! It shows the struggle of finding and losing relationships with others and self-esteem for yourself.

Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation: Certain poems mention sex. Social anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems are dissected in detail in the poems. Lover Girl will touch the emotions and experiences of teens. If an adult wants to introduce poetry to teens, this book is a good way to do it.

Reason for Inclusion: Teens want to see themselves in library materials. Lover Girl brings universal themes of surviving high school to a genre of book, poetry, that is often daunting.

References

Amazon.com. (2023, January 17). Lover Girl. Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BVCXJDLM?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_dp_PNDTMFYVS366KXRBZ90T&asin=B0BVCXJDLM&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1. 

Fordemwalt, R. [@raeganspoetry]. (n.d.). [TikTok profile. TikTok. Retrieved April 30, 2022 from https://www.tiktok.com/@raeganspoetry.

Fordemwalt, R. [@raeganspoetry]. (2022, November 8). This is a poem I wrote about how love feels. "Love is stupid"- by me. #fyp #poetry #poem #toxiclove #toxicrelationship #lovepoetry #mentalhealth #spokenpoetry [Video]. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@raeganspoetry/video/7163838048654937387?is_from_webapp=1.

TEDX Talks. (2017, August 8). Poetry and self-esteem: Finding the truth with words / Desree Gumbs-Carty. [YouTube]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9jLM3RsbQ8.

Tvdfan17. (2023, March 4) Compilation of Raegan Fordemwalt's poetry 9not mine). [YouTube]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFnusR1gWcE.