Welcome to my first Friday Favorites post! In this series, I’ll talk about my favorite books, authors, and writing-related tools and resources. Today, my Friday Favorite is middle-grade novels-in-verse.
Before this year, I’ve read very few novels-in-verse since Sharon Creech’s Love that Dog and Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust in fourth grade. I’d kind of forgotten they existed. But when I picked up Starfish by Lisa Fipps, Iveliz Explains It All by Andrea Beatriz Arango, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, and Rez Dogs by Joseph Bruchac over the summer and fall, I fell in love.
Free verse is such a powerful form, particularly for middle-grade fiction. Freed from traditional demands of extensive scene-setting, character introductions, and in-depth scene-by-scene plot development, verse packs a quick, economical punch that is difficult to achieve with prose. It forces the author to strip away everything but what is necessary for the reader to get to know the character, their problems, and the world they exist in. This allows the MG voice to take center stage and shine. If you’re writing for this age group, I highly encourage you to read MG novels-in-verse in order to get in touch with middle-graders’ unique voice and perspective.
Another reason I’m loving novels-in-verse lately is because they don’t take much time to read. As a working parent, I often don’t have as much time for reading as I would like. Middle-grade novels-in-verse allow me to sink into a character and see things from their perspective just as deeply as I would through a full-length novel, and I can do it in one or two sittings. In fact, I read Rez Dogs as my kids spent an hour and a half browsing for books and playing in the children’s section of our local library. This genre is also great for kids who are reluctant readers or who have grown out of chapter books but are intimidated by longer upper-middle-grade books.
I’m hoping to read a few more novels-in-verse in the next month or so. I’ve got my eye on Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga, Good Different by Meg Edan Kuyatt, and Alone by Megan E. Freeman.
What are your favorite novels-in-verse? Do you have any books to add to my list?
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