Spotlight on YA Verse Novels

 

Novels written in verse or poetry

Great stories, quick reads

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.

Ringside, 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial by Jen Bryant

Visitors, spectators, and residents of Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925 describe, in a series of free-verse poems, the Scopes “monkey trial” and its effects on that small town and its citizens.

Sweetgrass Basket by Marlene Carvell

In alternating passages, two Mohawk sisters describe their lives at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, established in 1879 to educate Native Americans, as they try to assimilate into white culture and one of them is falsely accused of stealing.

Frenchtown Summer by Robert Cormier

A series of vignettes in free verse in which the writer reminisces about his life as a twelve-year-old boy living in a small town during the hot summer of 1938.

The Taking of Room 114: A Hostage Drama in Poems by Mel Glenn

It could be the end of the year, or the end of their lives, when the students in Mr. Wiedermeyer's senior class are held hostage by their gun-toting teacher. Five poems about each student reveal the dreams, secrets, and fears of contemporary teens in an urban high school

Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes

While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.

Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials by Stephanie Hemphill
A fictionalized account, told in verse, of the Salem witch trials, told from the perspective of three of the real young women living in Salem in 1692--Mercy Lewis, Margaret Walcott, and Ann Putnam, Jr.

Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill

The author interprets the people, events, influences and art that made up the brief life of Sylvia Plath.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson

Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.

The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan

A variety of students at the same high school describe their ideas, experiences, and relationships in a series of interconnected free verse stories.

Sold by Patricia McCormick

Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi leaves her poor mountain home in Nepal thinking that she is to work in the city as a maid only to find that she has been sold into the sex slave trade in India and that there is no hope of escape.

Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins

Teenagers in a small town in the 1960s experience new thoughts and feelings, question their identities, connect, and disconnect as they search for the meaning of life and love.

Three Rivers Rising: A Novel of the Johnstown Flood by Jame Richards
Sixteen-year-old Celestia is a wealthy member of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, where she meets and falls in love with Peter, a hired hand who lives in the valley below, and by the time of the torrential rains that lead to the disastrous Johnstown flood of 1889, she has been disowned by her family and is staying with him in Johnstown.

God Went to Beauty School by Cynthia Rylant

A novel in poems that reveals God's discovery of the wonders and pains in the world He has created.

Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell

In fifth-century Britain, Elaine, who lives with her family in the military encampments of Arthur's army, describes her perceptions of war and the people around her as she becomes involved in the struggle against the Saxons.

One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones

Fifteen-year-old Ruby Milliken leaves her best friend, her boyfriend, her aunt, and her mother's grave in Boston and reluctantly flies to Los Angeles to live with her father, a famous movie star who divorced her mother before Ruby was born.

What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones

Sophie describes her relationships with a series of boys as she searches for Mr. Right.

Becoming Billie Holiday by Carole Boston Weatherford

Jazz vocalist Billie Holiday looks back on her early years in this fictional memoir written in verse.

Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff

In order to earn money for college, fourteen-year-old LaVaughn babysits for a teenage mother's children.

Sequel: True Believer

Reaching for the Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer

Josie, who lives with her mother and grandmother and has cerebral palsy, befriends a boy who moves into one of the rich houses behind her old farmhouse.