Children's Book Suggestions | Novels in Verse 2025

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....

Children's Fiction (Grades 3-5)

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...

Children's Fiction (Grades 3-5)

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...

Children's Fiction (Grades 3-5)

The song of orphan's garden
Hewitt, Nicole M.
Paper Book
Combining the gentleness of Miyazaki, the wintry wonderland of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and the whimsicality of Newbery winner The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Nicole M. Hewitt's debut middle-grade novel, The Song of Orphan's Garden, is an enchanting fantasy tale...

Children's Fiction (Grades 3-5)

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...

Children's Fiction (Grades 3-5)

Invisible Isabel
Pla, Sally J.
Paper Book
From award-winning author Sally J. Pla comes an illustrated middle grade novel about introverted Isabel Beane, who learns to speak up to quiet her worries. This thoughtful, earnest story is perfect for fans of Elana K. Arnold and Leslie Connor. Isabel Beane is a shy girl who lives in a...

Children's Fiction (Grades 3-5)

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...

Children's Fiction (Grades 3-5)

It's All or Nothing, Vale
Arango, Andrea Beatriz
Paper Book
A poignant novel in verse in which, after a life-changing accident, one girl finds her way back to her life's passion. From the Newbery Honor-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All. All these months of staring at the wall? All these months of feeling weak...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

Black star
Alexander, Kwame
Paper Book
A Coretta Scott King Honor Book The thrilling second book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Door of No Return trilogy stars Kofi's granddaughter, Charley, who's set on becoming the first female pitcher to play professional ball but who...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

Wings to soar
Athaide, Tina
Paper Book
A historically relevant middle-grade novel-in-verse about a girl's resiliency when faced with hatred towards refugees. Readers of The Night Diary and Inside Out and Back Again shouldn't miss out. It's 1972 and Viva's Indian family has been expelled from Uganda and...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

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...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

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...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

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...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

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,...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

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,...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

A two-placed heart : a memoir in verse
Nguyen, Doan Phuong
Paper Book
Afraid her sister (and maybe even herself) could lose sight of their Vietnamese identity, twelve-year-old Bom writes a poetic memoir to help them both remember--a love letter in verse to sisterhood and the places we leave behind. Bom can't believe that her sister doesn't see herself...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

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...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

Kareem between
Safadi, Shifa Saltagi
Paper Book
**WINNER of the NATIONAL BOOK AWARD for Young People's Literature** This 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...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

Ultraviolet
Salazar, Aida
Paper Book
A PURA BELPRÉ AWARD HONOR BOOK Sometimes life explodes in technicolor. In the spirit of Judy Blume, award-winning author Aida Salazar tells it like it is about puberty, hormones, and first love in this hilarious, heartwarming, and highly relatable coming-of-age...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

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,...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

I'm from here too
Sheth, Kashmira
Paper Book
Kashmira Sheth's eloquent verse novel follows an Indian American Sikh boy through a year of change, challenges, and growth Anoop is many things: a brother, a son, a grandson, a friend, a middle school student, and a budding writer. He is also Indian American and Sikh.

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

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...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

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...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

All the blues in the sky
Watson, Renée
Paper Book
# 1 New York Times bestselling and Newbery Honor author Renée Watson explores friendship, loss, and life with grief in this poignant novel in verse and vignettes. Sage's thirteenth birthday was supposed to be about movies and treats, staying up late with her best friend...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

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" (...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)

One alley summer
Ylvisaker, Anne
Paper Book
The summer before middle school is a time of anxiety and change. A pitch-perfect novel in verse about one girl's wish to simultaneously break free and to belong. In the summer before her first year of middle school, word-chanting, rope-skipping Phee skips her way to imagined fame, writes...

Young Teen Fiction (Grades 5-7)


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