verse novel – 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.

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

The Newbery honor book Inside Out and Back Again (HarperCollins, 2011) by Thanhha Lai is written in verse snapshots. Here’s a brief summary of the story:
It’s 1975, 10-year-old Hà, her mother and 3 older brothers must leave Saigon, Vietnam. Schools were closed a month early, the president has resigned, the communists are coming. They pack up and head for the Navy ships to escape. They end up on the island of Guam and then in Alabama.