Novels in Verse
Crossover by Kwame Alexander
Sisters of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill
Maria is the younger daughter of an esteemed family on the island of Murano, the traditional home for Venetian glassmakers. Though she longs to be a glassblower herself, glassblowing is not for daughters, that is her brother's work. Maria has only one duty to perform for her family: before her father died, he insisted that she be married into the nobility. And when a new young glassblower arrives to help the family business and Maria finds herself drawn to him, the web of conflicting emotions grows even more tangled.
The Wild Book by Margarita Engle
Fefa struggles with words. She has word blindness, or dyslexia, and the doctor says she will never read or write. Every time she tries, the letters jumble and spill off the page, leaping and hopping away like bullfrogs. How will she ever understand them? But her mother has an idea. She gives Fefa a blank book filled with clean white pages. "Think of it as a garden," she says. Soon Fefa starts to sprinkle words across the pages of her wild book. She lets her words sprout like seedlings, shaky at first, then growing stronger and surer with each new day. And when her family is threatened, it is what Fefa has learned from her wild book that saves them.
"With a bolt of lightning on my kicks . . .The court is
SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. Cuz tonight I'm
delivering, " announces dread-locked, 12-year old Josh Bell. He and his
twin brother Jordan are awesome on the court. But Josh has more than basketball
in his blood, he's got mad beats, too, that tell his family's story in verse.
Sisters of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill
Maria is the younger daughter of an esteemed family on the island of Murano, the traditional home for Venetian glassmakers. Though she longs to be a glassblower herself, glassblowing is not for daughters, that is her brother's work. Maria has only one duty to perform for her family: before her father died, he insisted that she be married into the nobility. And when a new young glassblower arrives to help the family business and Maria finds herself drawn to him, the web of conflicting emotions grows even more tangled.
The Wild Book by Margarita Engle
Fefa struggles with words. She has word blindness, or dyslexia, and the doctor says she will never read or write. Every time she tries, the letters jumble and spill off the page, leaping and hopping away like bullfrogs. How will she ever understand them? But her mother has an idea. She gives Fefa a blank book filled with clean white pages. "Think of it as a garden," she says. Soon Fefa starts to sprinkle words across the pages of her wild book. She lets her words sprout like seedlings, shaky at first, then growing stronger and surer with each new day. And when her family is threatened, it is what Fefa has learned from her wild book that saves them.
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
Jack hates poetry. But his teacher constantly makes him read and write about it. However, Jack starts to discover that the more poetry he reads, the easier it is to write and the more he has to say.
Caminar by Skila Brown
Carlos knows that when the soldiers arrive with warnings about the Communist rebels, it's not safe. Mama tells Carlos to run and hide, then try to find her. . . . Numb and alone, he must join a band of guerrillas as they trek to the top of the mountain where Carlos' abuela lives. Will he be in time, and brave enough, to warn them about the soldiers? What will he do then?
Jack hates poetry. But his teacher constantly makes him read and write about it. However, Jack starts to discover that the more poetry he reads, the easier it is to write and the more he has to say.
Caminar by Skila Brown
Carlos knows that when the soldiers arrive with warnings about the Communist rebels, it's not safe. Mama tells Carlos to run and hide, then try to find her. . . . Numb and alone, he must join a band of guerrillas as they trek to the top of the mountain where Carlos' abuela lives. Will he be in time, and brave enough, to warn them about the soldiers? What will he do then?
Hidden by Helen Frost
When Wren Abbott and Darra Monson are eight years old, Darra's father steals a minivan. He doesn't know that Wren is hiding in the back. The hours and days that follow change the lives of both girls. Darra is left with a question that only Wren can answer. Wren has questions, too. Years later, in a chance encounter at camp, the girls face each other for the first time. They can finally learn the truth—that is, if they’re willing to reveal to each other the stories that they’ve hidden for so long.
When Wren Abbott and Darra Monson are eight years old, Darra's father steals a minivan. He doesn't know that Wren is hiding in the back. The hours and days that follow change the lives of both girls. Darra is left with a question that only Wren can answer. Wren has questions, too. Years later, in a chance encounter at camp, the girls face each other for the first time. They can finally learn the truth—that is, if they’re willing to reveal to each other the stories that they’ve hidden for so long.
The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan
Written in verse, twelve-year-old Kasienka and her mother have immigrated to Coventry, England from Poland, searching for Kasienka's father. Unfortunately everyone is unfriendly except for an African neighbor and a boy Kasienka meets at the swimming pool, which is her only refuge from an alien society.
Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
For all the ten years of her life, HÀ has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by . . . and the beauty of her very own papaya tree. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. HÀ and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, HÀ discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape . . . and the strength of her very own family.
The Language Inside by Holly Thompson
Raised in Japan, American-born tenth-grader Emma is disconcerted by a move to Massachusetts for her mother's breast cancer treatment, because half of Emma's heart remains with her friends recovering from the tsunami.
Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Throughout her high school years, as her mother battles cancer, Lupita takes on more responsibility for her house and seven younger siblings, while finding refuge in acting and writing poetry.
The Ballad of Jesse Pearl by Shannon Hitchcock
It's 1922, and Jessie has big plans for her future, but that's before tuberculosis strikes. Jessie puts her dreams on hold to help her family. She falls in love for the first time ever, and suddenly what she wants is not so simple anymore.
Shakespeare Bats Cleanup by Ron Koertge
When a fourteen-year-old baseball player catches mononucleosis, he finds himself scribbling thoughts in a journal. To get some help, he
cops a poetry book from his dad's den - and before Kevin knows it, he's
writing in verse about stuff like, Will his jock friends give up on him?
What's the deal with girlfriends? Surprisingly enough, after his health
improves, he keeps on writing, about the smart-talking Latina girl who
thinks poets are cool, and even about his mother, whose death is a
still-tender loss.
Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt
halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow
up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of
Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement.
Wicked Girls by Stephanie Hemphill
May B. by Caroline Starr Rose
A gripping novel in verse follows the experiences of young May, who is separated from her family when she is sent to help at a neighbor's Kansas prairie homestead and who struggles for survival when she is abandoned and left to fend for herself in an isolated, snow-covered sod house.
Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham
After a shark attack causes the amputation of her right arm,
fifteen-year-old Jane, an aspiring artist, struggles to come to terms with her
loss and the changes it imposes on her day-to-day life and her plans for the
future.
Addie on the Inside by James Howe
Outspoken thirteen-year-old Addie Carle learns about love, loss, and staying true to herself as she navigates seventh grade, enjoys a visit from her grandmother, fights with her boyfriend, and endures gossip and meanness from her former best friend.
Karma by Cathy Ostlere *
In 1984, following her mother's suicide, 15-year-old Maya and her Sikh father travel to New Delhi from Canada to place her mother's ashes in their final resting place. On the night of their arrival, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated, Maya and her father are separated when the city erupts in chaos, and Maya must rely on Sandeep, a boy she has just met, for survival.
*For a mature reader
