Get Your Poetry On: 35 YA/MG Novels in Verse

	42 Miles (Tracie Vaughn Zimmer) Linked free-verse poems and illustrations depict the challenges a young girl faces as she grows up and tries to determine who she really wants to be and how she can remain true to herself.
	Addie on the Inside (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.
	After the Kiss (Terra Elan McVoy) A novel in verse which follows the thoughts and frustrations of Becca and Camille, both involved with Alec, as they go through their final semester of high school.
	All the Broken Pieces (Ann E. Burg) 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.
	Amiri & Odette: A Love Story (Walter Dean Myers) Presents a modern, urban retelling in verse of the ballet in which brave Amiri falls in love with beautiful Odette and fights evil Big Red for her on the streets of the Swan Lake Projects.
	Audition (Stasia Ward Kehoe) Sara, a high school junior, leaves her life and loved ones behind to move to a new city and stay with a host family after winning a coveted scholarship to study ballet, and though she finds comfort in the arms of Rem, a choreographer in his early twenties, she begins to think he might be using her, and a budding interest in writing makes her question whether ballet is the future she really wants.
	Because I Am Furniture (Thalia Chaltas) The youngest of three siblings, fourteen-year-old Anke feels both relieved and neglected that her father abuses her brother and sister but ignores her, but when she catches him with one of her friends, she finally becomes angry enough to take action.
	Becoming Billie Holiday (Carole Boston Weatherford) Includes bibliographical references (p. 116). Jazz vocalist Billie Holiday looks back on her early years in this fictional memoir written in verse.
	Brains For Lunch: A Zombie Novel in Haiku (K.A. Holt) Loeb, a zombie in middle school who has a crush on a regular human girl, tries to transcend stereotypes by competing in a haiku competition to make a good impression. Illustrations by Gahan Wilson.
	Brushing Mom's Hair (Andrea Cheng) A fourteen-year-old girl, whose mother's breast cancer diagnosis and treatment have affected every aspect of their lives, finds release in ballet and art classes.
	Chasing Brooklyn (Lisa Schroeder) As teenagers Brooklyn and Nico work to help each other recover from the deaths of Brooklyn's boyfriend--Nico's brother Lucca--and their friend Gabe, the two begin to rediscover their passion for life, and a newly blossoming passion for one another.
	Crank (Ellen Hopkins) Kristina Georgia Snow's life is turned upside-down, when she visits her absentee father, gets turned on to the drug "crank", becomes addicted, and is led down a desperate path that threatens her mind, soul, and her life. Sequels: Glass; Fallout
	The Crazy Man (Pamela Porter) Presents a novel written in free verse about twelve-year-old southern Saskatchewan farmgirl Emaline Bitterman's physical and emotional healing after an accident leaves her disabled and her father's guilt drives him away.
	Crossing Stones (Helen Frost) Four young people in two families tell of their experience during World War I when the boys enlist and are sent to fight, Emma finishes school, and Muriel joins the suffrage movement.
	The Death of Jayson Porter (Jaime Adoff) In the Florida projects, sixteen-year-old Jayson struggles with the harsh realities of his life which include an abusive mother, a drug-addicted father, and not fitting in at his predominately white school, and bring him to the brink of suicide.
	Exposed Kimberly Marcus High school senior Liz, a gifted photographer, can no longer see things clearly after her best friend accuses Liz's older brother of a terrible crime.
	Family (Micol Ostow) In the 1960s, seventeen-year-old Melinda leaves an abusive home for San Francisco, meets the charismatic Henry, and follows him to his desert commune where sex and drugs are free, but soon his "family" becomes violent against rich and powerful people and she is compelled to join in.
	Far From You (Lisa Schroeder) A novel-in-verse about sixteen-year-old Ali's reluctant road trip with her stepmother and new baby sister, and the terror that ensues after they end up lost in the snow-covered woods.
	The Geography of Girlhood (Kirsten Smith) A coming-of-age novel in poems, in which small-town teenager, Penny Morrow, longs for love, courage, and a life of adventure and struggles through the absence of her mother, the mental illness of a friend, the death of someone from her past, and a romance with her sister's ex-boyfriend.
	A Girl Named Mister (Nikki Grimes) A pregnant teenager finds support and forgiveness from God through a book of poetry presented from the Virgin Mary's perspective.
	Glimpse (Carol Lynch Williams) In one moment it is over. In one moment it is gone. Twelve-year-old Hope's life is turned upside down when her older sister, Lizzie, becomes an elective mute and is institutionalized after trying to kill herself. Hope and Lizzie have relied on each other from a young age, ever since their dad died.
	God Went to Beauty School (Cynthia Rylant) A novel in poems that reveal God's discovery of the wonders and pains in the world he has created.
	Hard Hit (Ann Warren Turner) A rising high school baseball star faces his most difficult challenge when his father is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
	Heaven Looks A Lot Like the Mall: A Novel (Wendy Mass) After an accident in gym class puts sixteen-year-old Tessa into a coma, she re-evaluates her life by visiting the mall stores where significant events in her life took place.
	Karma (Cathy Ostlere) Fifteen-year-old half Hindu, half Sikh Maya, having traveled from Canada to New Delhi to put her mother's ashes in their final resting place, finds herself in the middle of chaos after Indira Gandhi is assassinated and must disguise her identity and rely on a boy she just met in order to be reunited with her father and remain safe.
	Love and Leftovers: A Novel in Verse (Sarah Tregay) Fifteen-year-old Marcie's depressed mother forces her to move to New Hampshire when Marcie's father begins dating another man, and just as Marcie is getting used to her new life, she is forced to move back home, where she finds all of her old relationships have become strained.
	Orchards (Holly Thompson) Sent to Japan for the summer after an eighth-grade classmate's suicide, half-Japanese, half-Jewish Kana Goldberg tries to fit in with relatives she barely knows and reflects on the guilt she feels over the tragedy back home.
	Perfecct (Ellen Hopkins) Northern Nevada teenagers Cara, Kendra, Sean, and Andre describe in their own voices their very different paths toward perfection and how their goals change when tragedy strikes.
	Purple Daze (Sherry Shahan) Six high school students in a high school in Los Angeles in 1965 express their experiences and feelings in journal entries, notes, letters and poems.
	Sisters of Glass (Stephanie Hemphill) When a new glassblower arrives to help in the family business, the attraction Maria feels for him causes a web of conflicting emotions to grow even more tangled.
	Skate Fate (Juan Felipe Herrera) Lucky Z, a Chicano foster child, loved living on the edge until a drag racing accident left him in a wheelchair, but as he struggles to find his place in a new high school, he begins writing poetry everywhere about anything, and in finding his voice he also discovers the beauty around him.
	Under the Mesquite (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. Includes glossary of Spanish terms.
	Unlocked (Ryan G. Van Cleave) While trying to impress a beautiful, unattainable classmate, fourteen-year-old Andy discovers that a fellow social outcast may be planning an act of school violence.
	The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices From The Titanic (Allan Wolf) Recreates the 1912 sinking of the Titanic as observed by millionaire John Jacob Astor, a beautiful young Lebanese refugee finding first love, "Unsinkable" Molly Brown, Captain Smith, and others including the iceberg itself.
	The Wild Book (Margarita Engle) In early twentieth-century Cuba, bandits terrorize the countryside as a young farm girl struggles with dyslexia. Based on the life of the author's grandmother.