Verse Novels

 It was way back in 2014 that Steven Herrick showed me how great verse novels could be. I've really come to love them since, which I don't think could surprise anyone more than me. Because I haven't learnt to like poetry yet. But many of these verse novels would count as some of my favourite books of the past four years or so, or ever. .

I thought I would group together the verse novels I want to read, and those that I have read. A lot of these books are middle grade or YA, but I've started to read some adult verse novels too- although I think that there aren't as many of these about- or perhaps I just haven't found them yet.

And in a random act of coincidence that almost looks like planning April is National Poetry Month (in the US at least).


After the Kiss - Terra Elan McVoy

Aurora Leigh - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Brown Girl Dreaming - Jacqueline Woodson (see my review)

Bruiser - Neal Shusterman

Bully on the Bus - Kathryn Apel (see my review)

By The River - Steven Herrick (see my review)

Cinnamon Rain - Emma Cameron (see my review)

Crank - Ellen Hopkins

Enchanted Air - Margarita Engle

Freakboy - Kristin Elizabeth Clark

Glimpse - Carol Lynch Williams

Here is the Beehive - Sarah Crossan

Home of the Brave - Katherine Applegate

I Heart You, You Haunt Me - Lisa Schroeder

Inside Out & Back Again - Thanhha Lai (see my review)

Long Way Down - Jason Reynolds 

Love That Dog - Sharon Creech

May B - Caroline Starr Rose

Moonrise - Sarah Crossan (see my review)

October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard - Leslea Newman

One - Sarah Crossan (see my review)

One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies - Sonya Sones

Out of the Dust - Karen Hesse

Paper Hearts - Meg Wiviott

Pookie Aleera is Not My Boyfriend - Seven Herrick (see my review)

Red Butterfly - A.L. Somnichsen

Sister Heart - Sally Morgan (see my review)

Somewhere Among - Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsy

The Black Flamingo - Dean Atta

The Crossover - Kwame Alexander

The House on Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros

The Little Wave - Pip Harry

The Lost Marble Notebook of Forgotten Girl & Random Boy - Marie Jaskulka

The Monkey's Mask - Dorothy Porter

The Poet X - Elizabeth Acevedo

The Realm of Possibility - David Levithan

The Red Pencil - Andrea Davis Pinkney

The Simple Gift - Steven Herrick (see my review)

The Sugar Mile - Glyn Maxwell

The Watch that Ends the Night - Voices From the Titanic - Allan Wolf

The Weight of Water - Sarah Crossan

Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling - Lucy Frank

Street Love - Walter Dean Myers

We Come Apart - Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan (see my review)



I will add to this list as I come across new books, or lists of verse novels. I do like to keep track of verse novels.

12 YA Books in Verse You Need to Read

9 Books in Verse You Need to Read ASAP

Michael Symmons Roberts Top 10 Verse Novels

And for when I run out of these books there are 100 Must-Read YA Books Written in Verse!

Sarah Tregay has created the motherlode of all verse novel lists split into age!

I need to put these lists down- I just bought 6 verse novels over at Bookdepository! Oops.