Novels in Verse

Sandip Wilson
​Novels in verse presenting complex topics, characters, and plots in an accessible format engage young people and inspire their critical thinking. The books have characteristics that appeal to readers of all ages such as visual qualities of the lines on the page, the different poetic styles and structures that authors use, and the rhythm of the language. The books reviewed here, narratives on contemporary and challenging topics, offer insights into characters, experiences, and places. They make good choices for reading aloud and small-group and independent reading.

​13 Ways to Say Goodbye. Kate Fussner. (2025). Harper Collins.
Twelve-year-old Nina has the chance to complete her sister, Lily’s list of thirteen things she wanted to do before she was thirteen and before she died when Nina was ten. Nina “never liked/ alone, never knew/ my way,” and wanted to do what Lily did although her sister Nina to be herself, but this summer she travels alone to Paris to visit Aunt Renée, learn French, go to art class with Madam Toussaint, and do things on the list. Aunt Renée shows Nina notable places and introduces her to French-speaking Sophie, also in the art class. Madam Toussaint, a stern and knowledgeable task master, holds her classes in galleries and museums. While Sophie excels in using media, Nina struggles with developing her skills, but with Sophie, she has the adventures on the list. As she crosses off an item, she relives memories of her family, until Lily appears in a climactic memory, encouraging Nina in her affection for Sophie and her artwork. GR 5-8 

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All the Blues in the Sky. Renée Watson. (2025). Bloomsbury Children’s Books.
Sage relives the night, on her thirteenth birthday, one month ago, when a hit-and-run driver killed her best friend, Angel Rodriguez, who was on her way to Sage’s house to celebrate at Sage’s birthday. The tragedy haunts Sage, leaving her feeling sad and guilty. Part of a grief counseling group at school with her teacher, Mrs. Carter, and friends Ebony, Zay, and DD, she learns that grief results from many kinds of loss; people experience it in many ways. She learns that grief is like hunger. Eating one day doesn’t mean she isn’t hungry the next. As she experiences moments of happiness along with sadness, Sage learns that grief comes and goes in waves; yet, she fears that Angel died without knowing how much Sage loved her until she makes discoveries about Angel in this novel of friendship, discovery, and rising through deep sorrow. In the back matter, Renée Watson shares experiences of death and dying in her author’s note. GR 6 Up 

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All the Love Under the Sky. Kip Wilson (Ed).  (2025). Nancy Paulsen Books.
This collection of stories in verse, by children’s and young adult authors, shows the language of love in different situations and times. Stories of legend and myth such as “The Bridegroom’s Oak” are among stories that contain myths, such as “Borrowed Blossoms,” which tells the story of a musician and warrior prince in ancient Mexico who live in cities at war, yet the young men come to love each other during the prince’s diplomatic visit. “The Water Clock” is the story of a twelfth-century Indian mathematician, Leela, who fell in love with mathematics at six and at seventeen with Xiang, a visiting Chinese scholar, when asked to help with his translations. Other stories show how love “stretches across generations,” complex love of family relationships, unconditional love of grandparents, the fresh romance of young people, and a turnabout story about losing love in “Not So Sweet (An Anti-Cupid Story).”  Author notes follow each story and longer author biographies are in the back matter. GR 9-12

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Away. Megan Freeman. (2025). Simon & Schuster/Aladdin.
Twelve-year old Ashanti, whose mother is a medical doctor, fourteen-year old Grandin, who works on the family farm, twelve-year old Harmony, aspiring journalist, and eleven-year old Teddy, movie maker, are among families of a river valley in Colorado transported to a camp far from their home because of mass contamination to land and water. This companion novel to Alone (2021), told in alternating chapters of the characters’ voices, recounts their lives cut off from the outside world and closely guarded by the governors who give them updates on the growing tragedy of the valley. They become suspicious when Ashanti reports that her doctor mother says she has seen none of the illnesses the governors report. Their suspicion that photos showing devastation to forest, farms, and property are doctored is confirmed by mountain people not evacuated. As they discover the truth about events, they learn their purpose and who is responsible for the evacuation in this science fiction mystery thriller about community and collaboration.  GR 5 Up 

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The Extraordinary Orbit of Alex Ramirez. Jasminne Paulino. (2025). Putnam.
Seventh-grade student Alex wants to get into the science class and out of the SC, self-contained classroom, but his teacher, Ms. Sharon, tells him the science class will be too much for him, since he loses control when overwhelmed. His mother wants to keep him safe in the SC, but his father believes “we need to try/ we won’t know anything/ if we don’t try.”  Through his insistence, Alex is offered a place in the class, but loses Chase’s close friendship, who feels left out. When Alex learns that Ms. Rosen is introducing iCreate, a science club, for all the students, Alex believes he has found a way for both of them to become part of the school’s science community, but he has to overcome the fear he feels with Richard and Leonard’s daily harassment and bullying. Alex learns the power of his efforts in this novel, which includes dialogue in Spanish, and explores friendship, self-discovery, and determination. GR 5 Up

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​Glitch Girl. Rainie Oet. (2025). Kokila.
J— tells their story from the fifth grade through the seventh grade, including their friendship with Garrison, a crush on Junie, and their struggles at school where they fail classwork and are put in detention for outbursts and disorderly conduct.  They find solace, escape, and expression in creating theme parks with Coaster Boss, a computer game in which they create roller coasters and other adventures for the guests that populate the parks, but finds a glitch in their disasters. While J— suffers sadness they can’t explain, their mother supports their activities and their father is a harsh judge of their gestures of identity. In seventh grade, J— meets someone much like them and discovers that, “The reason I am bad is because I–ADHD, girl-boy, hated by Junie–/ am a glitch.” He stands up to his parents and their purposeful punishment as they develop a new friendship. The back matter includes an author’s note with interviews of the real people who were Junie and Garrison.  GR 5 Up

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It's All or Nothing, Vale. Andrea Beatriz Arango. (2025). Random House.
Puerto Rican Middle-school student Valentina Camacho Guitiérrez, a nationally ranked fencer, challenges herself to reach that caliber again after being sidelined four months because of injury to her legs, but pain persists as she practices.  Coach, friends, and family urge her to be kind to herself; yet, remembering her mother’s mantra, all her nothing, she pushes herself, motivated by the ability, ease, and power of the new fencer, Myrka, who, for Vale, is a competitor. Encouraged by her family’s evening salsa dancing and her physical therapist, she builds her spirit and strength and discovers her attraction to Myrka, who openly wants to befriend her.  Since Myrka is Cuban, they share cultural practices in this novel that reveals the culture of fencing and perspectives on friendship, healing, and self-discovery.  The back matter includes an author’s note in which Beatriz Arango explains her research into fencing. GR 5 Up 

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Octopus Moon. Bobbie Pyron. (2025). Nancy Paulsen Books.
Pearl does not look forward to the fifth grade. After a satisfying summer, loving her work at the Gulfarium, an aquarium where her mother works in Crescent Bay, Florida, and watching her favorite animals, the loggerhead turtles and the octopus thinking of her new school fills her with dread. “A dark fog creeps in,” making her feel sad, separate from friends, Rosie and Mia, and activities she has known her whole life, and leaving her guilty about her fear. As her sadness deepens, failing classwork and unable to get out of bed, her parents take her to see Dr. Jill. in this novel of second chances, courage, managing illness, and self-discovery Dr. Jill helps Pearl recognize her depression as an illness and Pearl becomes involved in fundraising for the Gulfarium. The back matter includes an author’s note where Bobbie Pyron describes her childhood anxiety and depression. GR 3 and Up 

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Radiant. Vaunda Micheaux Nelson. (2025). Dutton Books for Young Readers.
Cooper Dale, a fifth grader in 1963, wants to shine, radiant and brilliant in her class with Mrs. Kneeland, but wealthy Wade Carter calls her names and makes fun of her daily, making her reticent. Bold in her artwork, she questions the concept of color, flesh, a pink. Since her flesh is brown, she thinks other colors for flesh should be included. She says that Peter Pan and Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz could be any color since the books make no reference to their color.  Her mother serves as housekeeper for Mrs. Carter, but when she is diagnosed with cancer, Cooper’s mother does much more for her family and Cooper sees Wade, sad and withdrawn, in a new way, challenging her ideas about him.  With Hakim, the other black student and new in the class, her sense of herself shifts as she helps her mother and Wade’s family deal with their bereavement in this novel of self-discovery and meaning of radiance. Back matter includes the section “With Gratitude.”  GR 4-6 

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Safe Harbor. Padma Venkatraman. (2025). Nancy Paulsen Books.
Middle-school student, Geetha, and her mother immigrated to the New England coast from Chennai, India, but misses the books, family, and smells of home. She feels out of place in her new school, where she is bullied daily by smiley-faced girl surrounded by her clique. Geetha befriends Miguel, also a new student, whose scientist mother emigrated from Mexico. Finding solace in playing her flute and running along the beach, she finds a suffering young harp seal, almost strangled by a cord that has caused a deep cut. When she tells Miguel about the injured pup, the two rush to help and with the support of Miguel’s mother; they get the baby to the center for rescued seals. In daily visits with the seal, Geetha finds her voice in the healing power of her music and she recruits other students to clean the beach in this novel of friendship, overcoming bullying, and adapting to a new life. The backmatter includes an author note explaining real events that emphasize the urgency of addressing human-made pollution endangering life.  GR 5-8 

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​The Trouble with Heroes. Kate Messner. (2025). Bloomsbury Children’s Books.
Thirteen-year-old Finn Connelly looks forward to his summer, but when he kicks over a gravestone of Edna Grace Thomas, “Queen of the High Peaks,” a climber of the 46 peaks of the Adirondacks, his summer plans change. He is tried as a vandal, Finn agrees to climb the peaks over the course of the summer, if Edna’s daughter vows to drop the charges. Compounding this Herculean task, he has to take Edna’s dog. A poet and a baker who loves to invent kinds of cookies, Finn is not the strong person his father was, a hero, a fireman who pulled people from the 9/11 Twin Towers bombing. Finn believes he is not a hero; he failed physical education class, cannot find a purpose for the poetry project, and misses his father as much now that he is dead as he did when he was alive, helping other people but absent from his family. The novel, written in first-person, chronicles Finn’s climbing the peaks helped by Edna’s book, as he discovers his resourcefulness in helping his family and his affection for the dog. The back matter includes an author’s note explaining her experience as a 46er. GR 5-8 

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​Sandip Wilson, past-President of the CLR SIG and past-chair of the NBGS Award Committee, is a professor in the College of Science and Humanities at Husson University, Maine.