Tag: novel-in-verse

cover of Alone
Posted in Award Winners, MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Alone

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Alone (Aladdin, 2021) by Megan E. Freeman is a fascinating near future novel-in-verse that shouldn’t be missed.

Twelve-year-old Maddie wakes up in her small Colorado town and finds herself completely alone. No family. No friends. No neighbors. Not even strangers. Maddie discovers a rottweiler named George, and must keep them both alive without electricity, running water, or anyone to help.

This was a hard to put down story. I love that we along with Maddie don’t know what happened.

And it has won many awards:
Alone is a “New York Times bestseller, winner of the Colorado Book Award, the High Plains Book Award, the California, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Japan, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, and Vermont Children’s Book Awards, an NCTE Notable Verse Novel, and named on dozens of ‘best of’ book lists.” Wow!

Just this month, a companion book set in the same story universe, has come out. It’s called Away. I’m really looking forward to it.

Read about Megan here.

image of Starfish book cover
Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Starfish

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

This book is for the big girls. And for those who need to understand how hurtful words can be. And for those needing more love.

Starfish (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2021) by Lisa Fipps is so well written.

This novel-in-verse is such a heart-wrenching believable story of Ellie who is often called Splash or Whale. It felt so true I found myself getting angry at Ellie’s mother. Why doesn’t she stop Ellie’s siblings from teasing her? Why doesn’t she see her daughter’s strengths? But with help Ellie learns how to speak up not only to bullies at school but to her own mother.

And I’m not alone in thinking this book is great. Go here to see all the Best Book lists it’s being put on.

This is the author’s debut novel. Can’t wait to see what else she writes. Read about Lisa here. (I enjoyed her sense of humor!)

book cover of Other Words for Home
Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Other Words for Home

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Other Words For Home (Balzer + Bray, 2019) by Jasmine Warga is a Newbery Honor book and a New York Times bestseller. It’s written in verse and is a story of bravery. I wish everyone could read it to help their understanding of refugees and immigrants.

Jude and her mother have to leave Syria because of the violence and come to America to live with Uncle Mazin in Cincinnati. It’s so hard to leave behind Baba and her older brother. She quickly learns that her English isn’t good as she thought. As her brother told her, she must “be brave.” At first she dreads her ESL class until she learns the others there understand how difficult it is to find the right words. But her cousin doesn’t want to associate with her at school. Finding a few friends helps Jude have the courage to follow her dreams and she tries out for the school play. Will being in the spotlight make her life better or worse? And what about the dangers her brother is in?

Jasmine has written another middle grade novel called The Shape of Thunder and has published three young adult novels. Read more about her here.

Posted in Award Winners, MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Lifeboat 12

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Lifeboat 12 ( Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2018) by Susan Hood is based on a true story from WWII, and is very well done.

Thirteen-year-old Ken is being sent away from London to Canada to be safe from Nazi bombing. The SS City of Benares was a luxury cruise ship and the kids are amazed at the food and are having a wonderful time. Five days out, the adults relax as they are now out of danger. But then the ship is torpedoed. Ken and five other boys get into Lifeboat 12 to escape the sinking ship. Will they survive?

Lifeboat 12 has been named a 2019 ALSC Notable Book and a 2019 Bank Street Best Book of the Year.

This is author Susan Hood’s debut middle grade novel, although she’s written many others. Read about her here and read about her other picture books and early readers here.

Posted in So Many Good Books, YA Novels

Two novels in verse about grief by Lisa Schroeder

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

I heart you, you haunt me (Simon Pulse 2008) and Far from You (Simon Pulse 2009) by Lisa Schroeder both deal with the grief caused by death.
iheartyouIn the first book, I heart you, you haunt me, Ava’s boyfriend has died and we see what she’s thinking in short tight verse. One moving example:
“If tears
could bring him back,
there’d be enough
to bring him back
a hundred times.”
But then Ava starts hearing and seeing Jackson. Is she going crazy or is he a ghost? If he’s a ghost, why is he haunting her?

farfromyou.gifIn Lisa’s second book, Far from You, Alice’s grief is much older than Ava’s, but still Alice has not let it go. She’s resentful of her stepmother and her newborn half-sister (emphasis on half!). She and her best friend have had a disagreement and aren’t really talking. Alice’s dad makes her go on a trip with the three of them and a snowstorm changes her life.

Read about this Oregon author at www.lisaschroederbooks.com. I met Lisa through the creator of KidLit Central. Thanks, Kim, for the introduction and for loaning me the last book.