Technically, It's Not My Fault: Concrete Poems

Robert, age 9, and brilliant graphic book design are the two protagonists that hold this goofy, irreverent, laugh-out-loud collection of ‘tween poetry together. The title poem – about a failed science experiment that results in a concrete-damaged family car – is printed on the cover of the book, and every poem after that is a graphic adventure that supports the text. In “The Autobiography of Murray, The Fart” words travel up the page (through a straw, out of a soda can) down the page (into a stomach) and do loop-de-loops (through the digestive system) before shooting . . . well, you get the idea. Grandits hits all the high and low points of (male) middle school existence: homework, pets, siblings, horrible family gifts that show more you have to pretend to like, missed basketball shots, and pizza, among other topics.

Everyone will enjoy this book but it is particularly funny if you are a young male. show less

Technically, it’s Not My Fault, is a book of concrete poems written by John Grandits. It’s told from the perspective of an eleven year old boy named Robert. The poems are all centered around his thoughts about his daily life…skateboarding, gifts from an aunt who is completely out of touch, farts, video games, his sister, and much more. John Grandits does a great job of writing poems that actually feel like they came out of the mouth of an eleven year old boy. This book is very entertaining and attention getting in a laugh out loud kind of way. It would be a great read for grades 4-6.

"Technically, it's not my Fault" is a book of concrete poems told from the perspective of a boy named Robert. The poems are about his thoughts and things in his life, like how his family ends up getting plain pizza because no one can agree on toppings, the excuses he comes up with to get out of chores (like mowing the lawn), and writing thank-you letters to family members for gifts. As a kid, I liked this book because it was funny and I liked that the words formed shapes. Even though the words form shapes that sometimes require you to turn the book to read, it is well done so that it is not hard to follow what the poem is talking about (it's not confusing). This book of poems would probably be best suited for students in third grade and up.

John Grandits has done a great job as his book of abstract poems hypnotize me to follow the text. I enjoy his interesting ways of presenting his poems that make me want to follow the way his text fills up the page in a weird pattern. Although I'm not much of a poetry book reader, Grandits has done a good job of keeping me hooked through most of his books.

Really funny and unique format to the poetry.The concrete style adds a lot of character. The poems are very relatable.

This collection of concrete poems stars Robert, a seventh-grade boy, as he goes through his school day, plays basketball and baseball, smashes the car with a concrete block, farts, gets a present from his aunt, and much, much more.

Thumbs up. Cool poems that are unusual enough for kids to want to look at them and relevant enough for kids to identify with.

The concrete poems in this book would appeal to older kids, because of the themes for the poems and the creative presentation. The poems aren’t overflowing with figurative language. They don’t rhyme. Most of them read like conversational prose, but they are very entertaining.