Children's Book Suggestions | Novels in Verse

April is Poetry Month, which is a great month to promote novels in verse! With short lines of text and lots of white space, these books are a great choice for all readers, including striving readers and kids with dyslexia.

For even more poetry, browse the online catalog for more novels in verse or check out the 811 section in Children's Nonfiction.

Updated March 9, 2024
LINCC (Libraries in Clackamas County)Oregon City Public Library
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The door of no return
Alexander, Kwame
Paper Book

A novel in verse about a nineteenth century Asante boy who is sold into slavery and escapes, with similar themes to the 1976 classic Roots by Alex Haley. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

The crossover
Alexander, Kwame
Paper Book
Series streaming now on Disney+, with executive producers including NBA great LeBron James! The Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award-winning middle grade bestseller! Basketball and heartache share the court in this slam-dunk novel in verse. "With a bolt of lightning on my...

A fast-paced sports story for basketball fans! Check out companion novels Crossed and Booked, as well as the graphic novel adaptation and streaming series. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

Odder
Applegate, Katherine
Paper Book
From #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wishtree and The One and Only Ivan, Katherine Applegate, a touching and lyrical tale about a remarkable sea otter, also an instant #1 bestseller! Meet Odder, the Queen of Play: ...

A novel in verse told from the perspective of an otter from the author of the beloved Newbery Award winner The One and Only Ivan. (Children's Fiction Grade 3-5)

Starfish
Fipps, Lisa
Paper Book
A PRINTZ HONOR BOOK * Ellie is tired of being fat-shamed and does something about it in this poignant novel-in-verse. "In her debut novel, Starfish, Lisa Fipps confronts diet culture and fat phobia head-on. . . .  The book reads as if Ellie herself is writing these poems,...

A middle school girl learns to stand up to friends and family who bully her about her weight in this novel in verse inspired by the author's childhood. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

Something like home
Arango, Andrea Beatriz
Paper Book
Written by Newbery Honor-winning author, Andrea Beatriz Arango, this is a heartfelt and moving novel in verse about family, foster care and letting new people in.

After an attempt to get her parents help lands her parents in rehab and sends Laura to live with a relative she barely knows, she copes by training a stray puppy to be a therapy dog. (Young Teen Graphic Novel Grades 5-7)

What about Will
Hopkins, Ellen
Paper Book
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins comes a new heartbreakingly tender middle grade novel in verse about the bonds between two brothers and the love they share. Now in paperback. Twelve-year-old Trace Reynolds has always looked up to his brother, mostly...

After Will incurs a traumatic brain injury playing high school football and their mother walks out, twelve-year-old Trace tries to help his older brother as his grief and pain morphs into drug addiction. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

When clouds touch us
Lai, Thanhha
Paper Book
I ache to know how much longer until clouds touch us, ending refugee living. It's been two years since H and her family arrived in Alabama as refugees from the Việt Nam War. They've worked hard to make a life for themselves in America,...

A follow up to Lai's award-winning novel in verse Inside Out and Back Again, inspired by her experiences as a Vietnam War refugee whose family moved to Alabama in the 1970s. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)

Mirror to mirror
Larocca, Rajani
Paper Book
Rajani LaRocca, recipient of a Newbery Honor and Walter Award for Red, White, and Whole, is back with an evocative novel in verse about identical twin sisters who do everything together--until external pressures threaten to break them apart. Maya is the pragmatic...

Twin sisters find their lives diverging for the first time as they take different paths in middle school. Be sure to also take a look at Red, White, and Whole, LaRocca's Newbery Honor novel in verse about a girl who loses her mother to leukemia in the 1980s. (Young Teen Fiction Grades 5-7)


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