Last edited 10/25/2010
If I’ve missed one, please comment and let me know so I can add it to my master list. These are in order by title, not author, because that’s the way my brain works.
Count thus far 132!
42 Miles by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer
A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl by Tanya Lee Stone
A Dangerous Girl by Catherine Bateson
A Lion’s Hunger: Poems of First Love by Ann Warren Turner
A Place Like This by Steven Herrick
After the Death of Anna Gonzales by Terri Fields
Aleutian Sparrow by Karen Hesse
All The Broken Pieces by Ann E. Burg
Almost Forever by Maria Testa
Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart by Vera B. Williams
Angel Of Barbican High by Michelle A. Taylor
Autobiography Of Red: a novel in verse by Anne Carson
Beanball by Gene Fehler
Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas
Becoming Joe DiMaggio by Maria Testa
Been To Yesterday: poems of a life by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Behind The Wheel by Janet S. Wong
Bird by Susan Hawthorne
Borrowed Names by Jeannine Atkins
The Braid by Helen Frost
Brains For Lunch: A Zombie Novel in Haiku?! by K. A. Holt and Gahan Wilson
Brimstone Journals by Ronald Koertge
Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes
Brushing Mom’s Hair by Andrea Cheng
Burned by Ellen Hopkins
By The River by Steven Herrick
Call Me Maria by Judith Ortiz Cofer
Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Schroeder
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
CrashBoomLove by Juan Felipe Herrara
Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
Crossing Stones by Helen Frost
Dark Sons by Nikki Grimes
Dead on Town Line by Leslie Connor
Diamond Willow by Helen Frost
Do-Wrong Ron by Steven Herrick
Escaping Tornado Season: a story in poems by Julie Williams
Fallout by Ellen Hopkins
Far from You by Lisa Schroeder
Fearless Fernie by Gary Soto
Foreign Exchange: a mystery in poems by Mel Glenn
Frenchtown Summer by Robert Cormier
The Fruit Bowl Project by Sarah Durkee
Geography of Girlhood by Kirsten Smith
Glass by Ellen Hopkins
Girl Coming in for a Landing by April Halprin Wayland
Girl_X recreated by Leanne Rowe
God Went to Beauty School by Cynthia Rylant
Hard Hit by Ann Turner
Hate that Cat by Sharon Creech
Heartbeat by Sharon Creech
Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall by Wendy Mass
Hold Me Tight by Lorie Ann Grover
Home of the Brave by K. A. Applegate
Hugging the Rock by Susan Taylor Brown
Identical by Ellen Hopkins
I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder
Impulse by Ellen Hopkins
Jinx by Margaret Wild
Judy Scuppernong by Brenda Seabrooke
Jump Ball: a basketball season in poems by Mel Glenn
Kaleidoscope Eyes by Jen Bryant
Keesha’s House by Helen Frost
Laurie Tells by Linda Lowery
Learning To Swim: a memoir by Ann Turner
Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
Loose Threads by Lorie Ann Grover
Love Ghosts and Nose Hair by Steven Herrick
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff
Margaux with an X by Ron Koertge
North Of Everything by Craig Crist-Evans
Nothing by Robin Friedman
On Pointe: a novel by Lorie Ann Grover
One Night by Margaret Wild
One Of Those Hideous Books Where The Mother Dies by Sonya Sones
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
Pieces of Georgia by Jennifer Bryant
Poems From The Madhouse by Sandy Jeffs
Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer
Realm Of Possibility by David Levithan
Ringside 1925 by Jen Bryant
Rubber Houses by Ellen Yeomans
Running Back to Ludie by Angela Johnson
Scout by Christine Ford
Secret of Me by Meg Kearney
Seventeen by Liz Rosenberg
Shakespeare Bats Cleanup by Ron Koertge
Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs by Ron Koertge
Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham
Simple Gift by Steven Herrick
Sister Slam and the Poetic Motormouth Roadtrip by Linda Oatman High
Soda Jerk by Cynthia Rylant
Something About America by Maria Testa
Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell
Soul Moon Soup by Lindsay Lee Johnson
The Spangled Drongo by Steven Herrick
Spinning through the Universe by Helen Frost
Splintering by Eireann Corrigan
Split image:a story in poems by Mel Glenn
Stardust otel by Paul B. Janeczko
Street Love by Walter Dean Myers
Stop Pretending: What Happened When my Big Sister Went Crazy by Sonya Sones
The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle
Sweetgrass Basket by Marlene Carvell
T4 a novel by Ann Clare LeZotte
Taking of Room 114 by Mel Glenn
Talking In The Dark by Billy Merrell
Things Left Unsaid by Stephanie Hemphill
Three Rivers Rising: A Novel of the Johnstown Flood by Jame Richards
Tom Jones Saves The World by Steven Herrick
The Trial by Jennifer Bryant
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
True Believer by Virginia Euwer Wolff
Under The Pear Tree by Brenda Seabrooke
Volcano Boy:a novel in verse by Libby Hathorn
Voyage of the Arctic Tern by Hugh Montgomery
The Way a Door Closes by Hope Anita Smith
The Weight of the Sky by Lisa Ann Sandell
What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones
What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones
Where the Steps Were by Andrea Cheng
Whitechurch by Chris Lynch
Who Killed Mr. Chippendale?: A Mystery in Poems by Mel Glenn
Who Will Tell My Brother? by Marlene Carvell
Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials by Stephanie Hemphill
Witness by Karen Hesse
Worlds Afire by Paul B. Janeczko
Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy
You Remind Me Of You by Eireann Corrigan
The Year it All Happened by Catherine Bateson
Your Own, Sylvia by Stephanie Hemphill
Ooooh….thank you! I just put up my novels-in-verse display in the Teen Corner today. I was in a hurry, so I had to work from memory and I definitely missed some good ones.
Cool! Glad the list helped. I know I have missed some myself. I need to go back and check all my notes.
wow. I have so much reading to do!
It’s amazing how the genre has taken off, isn’t it? A few years ago when I was first shopping Hugging the Rock around editors weren’t sure the genre was here to stay.
Kind of off topic
Lovely web site. I just took a peek now. I like the french-window effect over your picture, as well as the photos you use. Very nicely done.
Re: Kind of off topic
Thank you! I am really happy with the way the site turned out. The designer and I struggled in the beginning trying to see each other’s side of things but the end result was worth it. Now if I my office could give me that same feeling.
Scout by Christine Ford is in bookstores now!
Got it! Will add to the new master list to post on my website.
I would add THE WAY A DOOR CLOSES by Hope Anita Smith (Holt).
Thanks, Lawrence! I forgot that one and it’s on my own shelf even. GRrr. You need to update your icon with the new shaved you. 🙂
Great Job, Susan!
I thought I’d read a lot of novels in verse, but I hadn’t heard of half of these! Have you heard of any adult books written in verse? (Not that I want to read adult books, but I’m curious if this is a genre all our own. I think it started with YA, anyway.)
Re: Great Job, Susan!
Yes, there are adult ones which I have forgotton but more, I think, from history rather than current times. There was some discussion about it on child_lit not too long ago.
I keep trying to read adult books and I keep giving up. They just don’t speak to me the way I need a book to.
Ann Turner has a new one, Hard Hit. It was published in February from Scholastic.
I don’t remember Birdland by Tracy Mack as a verse novel. I don’t have it to check (I loaned it out and it never came back!). She’s a very poetic writer, but I think that one’s in prose.
Great list, though! Thanks for compiling it!
Thanks, Cynthia. Wouldn’t you know that was one I grabbed at the last minute from someone else’s list and didn’t double-check. That will bite me in the behind every time. Grrr. I appreciate the update and the additional one to add to the list.
Thanks for the list Susan! One of the women in my critique group is giving verse novels a whirl and I have been trying to find resources for her and the rest of us as far as reading material goes in order to get a better feel for the genre. This will come in very handy
Novels in poetry form
Thanks for listing my 2 poetry titles, JUDY SCUPPERNONG & its sequel, UNDER THE PEAR TREE!
I read a poem every day to limber up my brain, keep my thoughts supple, freshen my imagery. Better exercise is to write a poem every day, even a bad one. FOr a writer, poetry builds mind muscles.
Brenda Seabrooke
there is a book called Burned by ellen hopkins that is also written in verse
There is a great nove in verse book by Helen Frost called Spinning through the Universe. I use in every year to launch our poetry unit.
Beanball
Hi Susan,
I appreciate your list. I’ve had the pleasure of having read more than two-thirds of these thus far. My own free verse novel, BEANBALL, is scheduled for 2/18/08 release by Clarion.
Gene Fehler
Burned by Ellen Hopkins
Glass by Ellen Hopkins
Impulse by Ellen Hopkins
I Don’t Want to be Crazy by Samantha Schutz
What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones
Verse novels – lots!
Hello Susan, greetings to all from Melbourne, Australia. Love your gorgeous live journal and fantastic list of verse novels. Verse novels – rich reading for avid and reluctant readers alike.
Some of my favourite verse novelists (but so many I haven’t tried yet): Steven Herrick; Sharon Creech; Margaret Wild; Karen Hesse.
You might like to cast your eye down this list from Ed. Dept. W. Australia, for a few more :
http://amlib.eddept.wa.edu.au/webquery.dll?v20=MarcList&v24=550909&v40=4075&v46=4085
Thanks and best wishes! Lynlibrary
Verse Novels
Thank you for posting this list of young adult verse novels.
It is so very helpful.
– an MFA grad student in NC
Verse Novels
Hi, Thanks so much for this list! One Note: Lorie Ann Grover’s book is Hold Me Tight, rather than Hold on Tight.
Locomotion
Peace, Locomotion
These two free verse novels you will want to read and add to your list.
Ringside 1925
Hi,
Here’s another one Ringside 1925 by Jen Bryant. It’s about the Scopes trial. Great, easy read.
novels in verse
I would add: Hate that Cat by Creech and Home of the Brave by Applegate
Star Jumps By Lorraine Marwood
I was glad to see your post along the same lines. I miss the community, the water cooler feeling and that’s what I want to try and bring back.
I’m in the middle of a new website design and what I am hoping is that the blog there will be the strictly writing one and that I can be more free here.
I think a big problem for me is that I stink at schedules and I really need to start scheduling my time in order to actually be able to do these things on a regular basis. I don’t know how I did it before.
10 ways of looking at my cat, Spike:
Someone’s been splattering orange paint on that cat.
Hiss, bap, she runs off her ex.
Cat snuggles, kneads, purrs, when I move, growls.
Cat sneaks through weeds, wild turkey face to face. Streak!
Cat rolls, sweetly purring, on her back. I’m not sucker enough to pat that belly.
A spike of orange down a black face.
Cat stalks over to the dog and cleans its ears.
One ear is clipped because cat was supposed to stay feral.
Calico cat batting a blue ball around the deck. Dog watching, panting.
Catitude: green eyes glaring.
So many mice, so little time.
Calico cat controlling the dog food bowl.
Black tail sticking up in the weeds as the queen progresses around the kingdom.
I’m not sure any of them work.
Yes. There is a need sometimes to just sit and wait. Usually I fight it but this past month I gave into it all.
But you’re right in that it also take a commitment and I have been struggling with that as well. For a time I thought I needed to be obsessed about a project before diving into it. Then I remembered that commitment comes first and the obsession comes when I am in the middle of it all.
Goodbye … and hello
Let me know where you’re moving on WP so I can follow you there. Good luck with the move!
Cloud Busting by Marjorie Blackman