Children's Book Suggestions | Novels in Verse 2025Unpublished

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, view last year's Novels in Verse list online, browse the online catalog for more novels in verse, or check out the 811 section in Children's Nonfiction.

Updated March 14, 2025

LINCC (Libraries in Clackamas County) Oregon City Public Library

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The one and only family

Applegate, Katherine

Paper Book

An instant #1 New York Times and indie bestseller! For more than a decade, readers have been enchanted by the modern classic The One and Only Ivan, a Newbery Award winner and a #1 New York Times bestseller, and by its bestselling sequels, The One and Only Bob and The One and Only Ruby....

One big open sky

Cline-Ransome, Lesa

Paper Book

A Newbery Honor Book Three women narrate a perilous wagon journey westward that could set them free--or cost them everything they have--in this intergenerational verse novel that explores the history of the Black homesteader movement. 1879, Mississippi. Young dreamer...

Reasons to look at the night sky

Daniel, Danielle

Paper Book

Luna has always loved the night sky. She's an eleven-year-old who knows everything there is to know about space, and dreams of one day becoming an astronaut. The first step in her plan to get there is to ace the space unit in her science class and secure a spot in NASA's summer space camp. But when...

Hummingbird season

Lucianovic, Stephanie V. W.

Paper Book

A poignant and necessary story about finding hope during difficult times, set in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Archie's life--and the whole world--is turned upside down by Covid-19. Suddenly there are no more Friday night dinners out, no more going to school, no...

Red Bird danced

Quigley, Dawn

Paper Book

With lyrical verse and powerful emotion, Dawn Quigley (Ojibwe) tells the story of urban Native kids who find strength in connection with those who came before and in the hope that lets them take flight. Ariel and Tomah have lived in the city's intertribal housing complex all...

Are you nobody too?

Cane, Tina

Paper Book

After a year of distance-learning, Emily Sofer finds her world turned upside down- she has to leave the only school she's ever known to attend a public school in Chinatown. For the first time, Emily isn't the only Chinese student around...but looking like everyone else doesn't mean that...

And then, boom!

Fipps, Lisa

Paper Book

A gripping new novel in verse by the author of the Printz Honor-winning Starfish, featuring a poverty-stricken boy who bravely rides out all the storms life keeps throwing at him Joe Oak is used to living on unsteady ground. His mom can't be depended on as she never stays...

Away

Freeman, Megan E.

Paper Book

A group of children investigate the threat that prompted large-scale evacuations in this powerful and dramatic companion novel to the New York Times bestselling Alone told in multiple POVs. After an imminent yet unnamed danger forces people across Colorado to leave...

Lion of the sky

Hemnani, Ritu

Paper Book

An evocative historical novel in verse about a boy and his family who are forced to flee their home and become refugees after the British Partition of India. Perfect for fans of Other Words for Home. Twelve-year-old Raj is happiest flying kites with his best friend,...

Deer run home : a novel in verse

LeZotte, Ann Clare

Paper Book

Effie is Deaf, and no one in her family speaks sign language, her language. This moving story of survival and found family, inspired by a true court case, is perfect for fans of Wonder and Out of My Mind. * "Quietly extraordinary." --Kirkus Reviews,...

Isabel in bloom

Respicio, Mae

Paper Book

A middle-school girl discovers a connection between her home in the Philippines and her new home in the U.S. through a special garden in "this sweet and heartfelt novel that explores how bumpy beginnings can offer chances for new growth" (The New York Times) A National Council...

Kareem between

Safadi, Shifa Saltagi

Paper Book

This award-winning, heartfelt coming-of-age novel in verse tells the powerful story of a seventh-grade Syrian American boy and his struggles, big and small, as he navigates middle school. "The exact type of book I would've loved, and needed, as a kid." --Jasmine Warga,...

Louder than hunger

Schu, John

Paper Book

A New York Times bestseller! A Schneider Family Book Award Honor Book "Every so often a book comes along that is so brave and necessary, it extends a lifeline when it's needed most. This is one of those books." --Katherine Applegate, author of the Newbery Medal-winning,...

Deep water

Sumner, Jamie

Paper Book

"Readers will feel every wave of Tully's emotions as she risks everything to try to get her mom's attention. A powerful novel in verse." --Lisa Fipps, author of Printz Honor book Starfish A middle grade novel in verse that "packs a powerful punch" (Kirkus Reviews...

Murray out of water

Tracy, Taylor

Paper Book

Perfect for fans of Rebecca Stead, Natalie Lloyd, and Jasmine Warga, this beautiful novel in verse explores one girl's struggle to regain her magic after a hurricane forces her to move away from her beloved ocean that, she believes, has given her special powers. Bighearted...

Mid-Air

Williams, Alicia

Paper Book

Longlisted for the National Book Award A tender-souled boy reeling from the death of his best friend struggles to fit into a world that wants him to grow up tough and unfeeling in this stunning illustrated middle grade novel in verse "full of vulnerability and hope" (...

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Children's Book Suggestions | Novels in Verse 2025UnpublishedShare

Children's Book Suggestions | Novels in Verse 2025Unpublished