Children's Books in Verse

Check out this list generated by our Youth Services Librarians for the Scotch Plains Public Library's annual summer reading challenge.

Updated April 27, 2023
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
The crossover
Alexander, Kwame.
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...

Enjoy this book? Check out other novels in verse by the same author: Booked and Rebound.

Odder
Applegate, Katherine
Now a #1 New York Times bestseller! A touching and lyrical tale about a remarkable sea otter, from Newbery Medalist Katherine Applegate, author of Wishtree. Meet Odder, the Queen of Play: Nobody has her moves. She doesn't just swim to...
Iveliz explains it all
Arango, Andrea Beatriz
NEWBERY HONOR AWARD WINNER * In this timely and moving novel in verse, a preteen girl navigates seventh grade while facing mental health challenges. A hopeful, poetic story about learning to advocate for the help and understanding you deserve. "Powerful." --Lisa Fipps,...
Hidden powers : Lise Meitner's call to science
Atkins, Jeannine
From the acclaimed author of Finding Wonders and Grasping Mysteries comes a gorgeously written biography in "deliberate, delicate verse" (Kirkus Reviews) about the pioneering Jewish woman physicist whose scientific prowess changed the course of World War II. ...
No matter the distance
Baldwin, Cindy
An unexpected animal companion helps a girl with cystic fibrosis learn to write her own story in this captivating novel in verse by award-winning author and disabled activist Cindy Baldwin. Penny Rooney has cystic fibrosis, which means she has to do breathing treatments to...
Eb & Flow
Baptist, Kelly J.
A ten-day suspension has tweens De'Kari and Ebony seeing the world with a fresh perspective. Don't miss this poignant novel in verse from the award-winning author of Isaiah Dunn Is My Hero. Two kids. One fight. No one thinks they're wrong.   ...
The canyon's edge
Bowling, Dusti
Hatchet meets Long Way Down in this heartfelt and gripping novel in verse about a young girl's struggle for survival after a climbing trip with her father goes terribly wrong. One year after a random shooting changed their family forever, Nora and...
Rez dogs
Bruchac, Joseph
Renowned author Joseph Bruchac tells a powerful story of a girl who learns more about her Penacook heritage while sheltering in place with her grandparents during the coronavirus pandemic. Malian loves spending time with her grandparents at their home on a Wabanaki reservation...
Beyond me
Donwerth-Chikamatsu, Annie
In the spirit of A Place to Belong, this remarkable novel-in-verse examines the aftershocks of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in 2011 through the eyes of a young girl who learns that even the smallest kindness can make a difference. March 11, 2011 ...
Bird
Elliott, Zetta.
An African-American boy nicknamed Bird uses drawing as a creative outlet as he struggles to make sense of his grandfather's death and his brother's decline into drug addiction. Told with spare grace, Bird is a touching look at how a young boy copes with real-life troubles. Readers will be heartened...
Singing with elephants
Engle, Margarita
A powerful novel in verse from Newbery and Pura Belpre Award-winning author Margarita Engle about the friendship between a young girl and the poet Gabriela Mistral that leads to healing and hope for both of them. Cuban-born eleven-year-old Oriol lives in Santa Barbara, California...
We belong
Everman, Cookie Hiponia
An extraordinarily beautiful novel-in-verse, this important debut weaves a dramatic immigrant story together with Pilipino mythology to create something wholly new. Stella and Luna know that their mama, Elsie, came from the Philippines when she was a child, but they don't know...
Golden girl
Faruqi, Reem
From the award-winning, ALA Notable author of Unsettled and Lailah's Lunchbox, this is a captivating coming-of-age middle grade novel in verse about seventh grader Aafiyah Qamar, a Pakistani American girl who hatches a special plan to help her family but finds that doing what...

Check out Unsettled, another Novel in Verse by Reem Faruqi.

Dear Mothman
Gow, Robin
Poet and author Robin Gow's moving middle-grade novel in verse Dear Mothman is about a young trans boy dealing with the loss of his friend by writing to his favorite cryptid. Halfway through sixth grade, Noah's best friend and the only other trans boy in his...
Macy McMillan and the rainbow goddess
Green, Shari
Winner of the 2018 ALA Schneider Family Book Award, Middle Grade Books category Sixth grade is coming to an end, and so is life as Macy McMillan knows it. Already a "For Sale" sign mars the front lawn of her beloved house. Soon her mother will upend their perfect little family,...
Garvey in the dark
Grimes, Nikki
Winner, 2023 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Capturing the shock and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic through the eyes of Garvey, a beloved character, Nikki Grimes's newest novel in verse shows readers how to find hope in difficult times. Garvey's finally happy--he's...

Want to start at the beginning? Check out the first book in this series: Garvey's Choice.

Samira surfs
Guidroz, Rukhsanna
A middle grade novel in verse about Samira, an eleven-year-old Rohingya refugee living in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, who finds strength and sisterhood in a local surf club for girls. Samira thinks of her life as before and after- before the burning and violence in her village in...
Full cicada moon
Hilton, Marilyn
Inside Out and Back Again meets One Crazy Summerand Brown Girl Dreaming in this novel-in-verse about fitting in and standing up for what's right It's 1969, and the Apollo 11 mission is getting ready to go to the moon. But for half-black, half-Japanese Mimi,...
Closer to nowhere
Hopkins, Ellen
#1 New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins's poignant middle grade novel in verse about coming to terms with indelible truths of family and belonging. For the most part, Hannah's life is just how she wants it. She has two supportive parents, she's popular at school...
Red, white, and whole
LaRocca, Rajani
Newbery Honor Book! A heartbreakingly hopeful novel in verse about an Indian American girl whose life is turned upside down when her mother is diagnosed with leukemia. * Walter Award Winner * New England Book Award Winner * An NCTE Notable Verse Novel * Golden Kite Award...
The red pencil
Pinkney, Andrea Davis
"Amira, look at me," Muma insists. She collects both my hands in hers. "The Janjaweed attack without warning. If ever they come-- run." Finally, Amira is twelve. Old enough to wear a...
The Dancing Pancake
Spinelli, Eileen.
DELICIOUS PANCAKES!! FREE!! ALL YOU CAN EAT!! COME TO OUR NEW GRAND OPENING!   The grand opening of the Dancing Pancake isn't the only new thing in Bindi's life: new friends, a new apartment, maybe even a cute new crush? But there are other changes, like her dad's...
Like bug juice on a burger
Sternberg, Julie.
I hate camp. I just hate it. I wish I didn't. But I do. Being here is worse than bug juice on a burger. Or homework on Thanksgiving. Or water seeping into my shoes. In this sequel to the critically acclaimed Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie, Eleanor is off to summer camp. At first she's...

Check out the first book in this series; Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie.

Before the ever after
Woodson, Jacqueline
WINNER OF THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER OF THE CORETTA SCOTT KING AUTHOR AWARD National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson's stirring novel-in-verse explores how a family moves forward when their glory days have passed and the cost of professional sports on Black bodies...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.