Novels in Verse & Non-Fiction Poetry Collections

Novels:

 

Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham (YA FIC Bin)
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.

 

All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg (YA FIC Bur)
Two years after being airlifted out of Vietnam in 1975, Matt Pin is haunted by the terrible secret he left behind and, now, in a loving adoptive home in the United States, a series of profound events forces him to confront his past.

 

This is What I Did by Ann Dee Ellis (YA FIC Ell)
Bullied because of an incident in his past, eighth-grader Logan is unhappy at his new school and has difficulty relating to others until he meets a quirky girl and a counselor who believes in him.

 

Keesha’s House by Helen Frost (YA FIC Fro)
Seven teens facing such problems as pregnancy, closeted homosexuality, and abuse each describe in poetic forms what caused them to leave home and where they found home again.

 

Walking on Glassby Alma Fullerton (YA FIC Ful)
A teenage boy recounts, in a free verse journal, his attempts to come to terms with the realities of his mother's near-death coma.

 

Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes (YA FIC Gri)
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.

 

Loose Threads by Lorie Ann Grover (YA FIC Gro)
A series of poems describes how seventh-grader Kay Garber faces her grandmother's battle with breast cancer while living with her mother and great-grandmother and dealing with everyday junior high school concerns.

 

Things Left Unsaid: A novel in poems by Stephanie Hemphill (YA FIC Hem)
After a lifetime of conforming to the image of what her parents and high school friends want her to be, Sarah must come to terms with her own identity when her destructive best friend tries to commit suicide. Told in the form of free-verse poems.

 

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins (YA FIC Hop)
Three teens who meet at Reno, Nevada's Aspen Springs mental hospital after each has attempted suicide connect with each other in a way they never have with their parents or anyone else in their lives.

 

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins (YA FIC Hop)
Five troubled teenagers fall into prostitution as they search for freedom, safety, community, family, and love.

 

Addie on the Inside by James Howe (YA FIC How)
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.

 

Sun Signs by Shelley Hrdlitschka (YA FIC Hrd)
Unable to attend school because she is battling cancer, Kaleigh begins taking online courses and through emails she becomes friends with a group of other distance education students as they try and complete an astrology science project.

 

The Brimstone Journals by Ron Koertge (YA FIC Koe)
In a series of short interconnected poems, students at a high school nicknamed Brimstone reveal the violence existing and growing in their lives.

 

Shakespeare Bats Cleanup by Ron Koertge (YA FIC Koe)
When a fourteen-year-old baseball player catches mononucleosis, he discovers that keeping a journal and experimenting with poetry not only helps fill the time, it also helps him deal with life, love, and loss.

 

Seeing Emily by Joyce Lee Wong (YA FIC Lee)
Relates in free verse the experiences of sixteen-year-old Emily, a gifted artist and the daughter of immigrants to the United States, as she tries to reconcile her American self with her Chinese heritage.

 

Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue by Julius Lester (YA FIC Les)
Emma has taken care of the Butler children since Sarah and Frances's mother, Fanny, left. Emma wants to raise the girls to have good hearts, as a rift over slavery has ripped the Butler household apart. Now, to pay off debts, Pierce Butler wants to cash in his slave "assets", possibly including Emma.

 

Realm of Possibility by David Levithan (YA FIC Lev)
A variety of students at the same high school describe their ideas, experiences, and relationships in a series of interconnected free verse stories.

 

Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall (YA FIC McC)
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.

 

Sold by Patricia McCormick (YA FIC McC)
Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi, though poor, enjoys her life until the Himalayan monsoons wash away her family's crops and she is sold to a brothel in India by her stepfather. She remembers her mother's wisdom, "Simply to endure is to triumph," until the day comes that she can reclaim her life.

 

After the Kiss by Terra Elan McVoy (YA FIC McV)
In alternating chapters, two high school senior girls in Atlanta reveal their thoughts and frustrations as they go through their final semester of high school.

 

Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy (YA FIC Roy)
From 1939, when Syvia is four and a half years old, to 1945 when she has just turned ten, a Jewish girl and her family struggle to survive in Poland's Łódź ghetto during the Nazi occupation.

 

Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell (YA FIC San)
In fifth-century Britain, Elaine lives with her father and brothers in the military encampments of Arthur's army, where she describes her changing perceptions of war and the people around her as she becomes increasingly involved in the bitter struggle against the invading Saxons.

 

The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder (YA FIC Sch)
Sixteen-year-old Amber, hoping to spend one perfect day alone at the beach before her world is turned upside down, meets and feels a strong connection to Cade, who is looking for his own escape, for a very different reason.

 

One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones (YA FIC Son)
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 Girlfriend Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones (YA FIC Son)
Fourteen-year-old Robin Murphy is so unpopular at high school that his name is slang for "loser," and so when he begins dating the beautiful and popular Sophie her reputation plummets, but he finds acceptance as a student in a drawing class at Harvard.

 

Hard Hit by Ann Turner (YA FIC Tur)
A rising high school baseball star faces his most difficult challenge when his father is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

 

Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff (YA FIC Wol)
Living a life of hardship together, Jolly, a seventeen-year-old with two kids by two different absent fathers, and her baby-sitter, LaVaughn, soon take steps toward putting their lives on track.

Non-Fiction Poetry Collections:

How to (Un)Cage a Girl by Francesca Lia Block (YA 811.54 Blo)
A celebration of girls and women in a three part poetry collection that is powerful, hopeful, authentic, and universal.

 

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle (YA 811.54 Eng)
Cuba has fought three wars for independence and still is not free. People have been rounded up in concentration camps with too little food and too much illness. Who can heal a country so torn apart by war?

 

Dizzy in Your Eyes: Poems About Love by Pat Mora (YA 811 Mor)
Each of the teens in these 50 original poems, written using a variety of poetic forms, will be recognizable to the reader as the universal emotions, ideas, impressions, and beliefs float across the pages in these gracefully told verses.

To check the status of a book or to place your name on the waiting list, please use the Library Catalog or call the library at 789-1555.

This list created for the South Kingstown Public Library by Brandi Kenyon. Updated 03/12