Books in Verse

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"Books in Verse" are typically novel-length stories that are written in verse or poetry rather than prose. This is a sampling of those available in the Children's Services department of the Main Library. The books on this list are predominantly fiction, but also include a few nonfiction, biographical, and autobiographical titles.

Note: All call numbers are for the Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana

CALL #	AUTHOR	TITLE	DATE
J ALDRID	Aldridge, Alan	The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast Creatures that fly, or that creep, hop, or run, now wake all at once at a loud trumpet-call -- it's the day of the Feast and the Butterfly Ball!	2009
J ANDER	Anderson, M.T.	The Serpent Came to Gloucester Rhyming text tells of a sea serpent that plays off the coast of Massachusetts the summer of 1817, and is hunted upon its return the next year. Includes a page of facts upon which the story is based.	2005
J BREWE	Brewer, Caroline	Barack Obama Inspired by the life of Barack Obama.	2009
J BREWE	Brewer, Caroline	The Jelani Tree Inspired by the life of Jelani Manigault.	2005
J BRYAN	Bryant, Jennifer	The Trial: a Novel Living in Flemington, New Jersey, in 1935, twelve-year-old Katie Leigh Flynn describes, in a series of poems, the effect on her small town of the ongoing trial of Bruno Hauptmann for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's baby son.	2004
J BRYAN	Bryant, Jennifer	Kaleidoscope Eyes In 1968, with the Vietnam War raging, thirteen-year-old Lyza inherits a project from her deceased grandfather, who had been using his knowledge of maps and the geography of Lyza's New Jersey hometown to locate the lost treasure of Captain Kidd.	2009
J BURG	Burg, Ann E.	All the Broken Pieces Two years after being airlifted out of Vietnam in 1975, Matt Pin is haunted by the terrible secret he left behind and, now, in a loving adoptive home in the United States, a series of profound events forces him to confront his past.	2009
J CHENG	Cheng, Andrea	Shanghai Messenger A free-verse novel about eleven-year-old Xiao Mei's visit with her extended family in China, where the Chinese-American girl finds many differences but also the similarities that bind a family together.	2005
J CHENG	Cheng, Andrea	Where the Steps Were Verse from the perspectives of five students in Miss D.'s third grade class details the children's last year together before their inner city school is to be torn down.	2008
J CHENG	Cheng, Andrea	Brushing Mom's Hair A fourteen-year-old girl, whose mother's breast cancer diagnosis and treatment have affected every aspect of their lives, finds release in ballet and art classes.	2009
J CREEC	Creech, Sharon	Hate That Cat Jack is studying poetry again in school, and he continues to write poems reflecting his understanding of famous poems and how they relate to his life.	2008
J CREEC	Creech, Sharon	Love That Dog A young student, who comes to love poetry through a personal understanding of what different famous poems mean to him, surprises himself by writing his own inspired poem.	2001
J ELLIO	Elliott, Zetta	Bird Bird, an artistic young African American boy, expresses himself through drawing as he struggles to understand his older brother's drug addiction and death, while a family friend, Uncle Son, provides guidance and understanding.	2008
J ELLIO	Elliott, Zetta	Bird Bird, an artistic young African American boy, expresses himself through drawing as he struggles to understand his older brother's drug addiction and death, while a family friend, Uncle Son, provides guidance and understanding.	2008
J ENGLE	Engle, Margarita	Tropical Secrets Escaping from Nazi Germany to Cuba in 1939, a young Jewish refugee dreams of finding his parents again, befriends a local girl with painful secrets of her own, and discovers that the Nazi darkness is never far away.	2009
J FORD	Ford, Christine	Scout After her mother dies, eleven-year-old Cecelia befriends a new boy at school, but soon realizes that the scruffy youth's home life is the reason for his introspective personality, which is so much like her own.	2006
J FROST	Frost, Helen	Diamond Willow In a remote area of Alaska, twelve-year-old Willow helps her father with their sled dogs when she is not at school, wishing she were more popular, all the while unaware that the animals surrounding her carry the spirits of dead ancestors and friends who care for her.	2008
J FROST	Frost, Helen	The Braid In this unforgettable novel, award-winning poet Helen Frost eloquently twists strand over strand of language, braiding the words at the edges of the poems to bring new poetic forms to life while intertwining the destinies of two young girls and the people who cross their paths.	2006
J GRIME	Grimes, Nikki	Dark Sons Alternating poems compare and contrast the conflicted feelings of Ishmael, son of the Biblical patriarch Abraham, and Sam, a teenager in New York City, as they try to come to terms with being abandoned by their fathers and with the love they feel for their younger stepbrothers.	2005
J GROVE	Grover, Lorie Ann	On Pointe In this novel written in free verse, Clare and her grandfather must deal with changes in their lives when Clare's summer growth spurt threatens to end her dream of becoming a ballet dancer and her grandfather suffers a stroke.	2004
J HAVIL	Havill, Juanita	Grow Two misfit children and other members of a Minneapolis, Minnesota, neighborhood are brought together by a woman creating a community garden.	2008
J HERRI	Herrick, Steven	Naked Bunyip Dancing This novel in verse follows the school year of Australian students in classroom 6C, as their unconventional teacher encourages them to discover their own strengths and talents and perform in a memorable concert.	2008
J HESSE	Hesse, Karen	Aleutian Sparrow An Aleutian Islander recounts her suffering during World War II in American internment camps designed to "protect" the population from the invading Japanese.	2003
J HESSE	Hesse, Karen	Out of the Dust In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.	1997
J HESSE	Hesse, Karen	Witness When a small Vermont town turns against its own in 1924 as the Ku Klux Klan moves in, no one is safe--especially 12-year-old Leonora, an African-American girl, and six-year-old Esther, who is Jewish.	2001
J JOHNS	Johnson, Lindsay Lee	Soul Moon Soup After her father leaves and Phoebe and her mother struggle to survive in the city, Phoebe finally goes to the country to live with her grandmother, where she learns family secrets and hopes her mother will return for her.	2002
J LEZOT	LeZotte, Ann Clare	T4 When the Nazi party takes control of Germany, thirteen-year-old Paula, who is deaf, finds her world-as-she-knows-it turned upside down, as she is taken into hiding to protect her from the new law nicknamed T4.	2008
J MASS	Mass, Wendy	Heaven Looks A Lot Like the Mall When high school junior Tessa Reynolds falls into a coma after getting hit in the head during gym class, she experiences heaven as the mall where her parents work, and she revisits key events from her life, causing her to reevaluate herself and how she wants to live.	2007
J MCKISS	McKissack, Pat	Stitchin' and Pullin': A Gee's Bend Quilt As a young African American girl pieces her first quilt together, the history of her family, community, and the struggle for justice and freedom in Gee's Bend, Alabama unfolds.	2008
J MYERS	Myers, Walter Dean	Amiri and Odette: A Love Story Presents a modern, urban retelling in verse of the ballet in which brave Amiri falls in love with beautiful Odette and fights evil Big Red for her on the streets of the Swan Lake Projects.	2009
J RUSSE	Russell, Ching Yeung	Tofu Quilt Growing up in 1960s Hong Kong, a young girl dreams of becoming a writer in spite of conventional limits placed on her by society and family.	2009
J RYLAN	Rylant, Cynthia	God Went to Beauty School A novel in poems that reveal God's discovery of the wonders and pains in the world he has created.	2003
J SANDE	Sandell, Lisa Ann	Song of the Sparrow This lyrical novel in verse tells the tale of fiery, 16-year-old Elaine of Ascolat--who will one day be known in poems and paintings as "The Lady of Shalott" from Arthurian lore.	2007
J SMITH	Smith, Hope Anita	Keeping the Night Watch A thirteen-year-old African American boy chronicles what happens to his family when his father, who temporarily left, returns home and they all must deal with their feelings of anger, hope, abandonment, and fear.	2008
J SPINE	Spinelli, Eileen	The Dancing Pancake Eleven-year-old Belinda "Bindi" Winkler and her family find their way through tough times with the love and support of the community that grows around their newly opened restaurant, "The Dancing Pancake."	2010
J SPINE	Spinelli, Eileen	Summerhouse Time Accompanied by charming black-and-white illustrations, classic growing-up experiences radiate throughout the pages of this sunny, anytime story about a family who rents a pink cottage on the beach for the entire summer. Illustrations.	2007
J SPINE	Spinelli, Eileen	Where I Live This gentle and ultimately redeeming story in poems is about those secure and fulfilling friendships that happen naturally and easily when friends live right next door, and the struggles of losing the comfort of a familiar place. Illustrations.	2007
J TESTA	Testa, Maria	Almost Forever A young girl describes what she, her brother, and their mother do during the year that her doctor father is serving in the Army in Vietnam.	2003
J WEST	Weston, Robert Paul	Zorgamazoo maginative and adventurous Katrina eludes her maniacal guardian to help Morty, a member of a vanishing breed of zorgles, with his quest to uncover the fate of the fabled zorgles of Zorgmazoo as well as of other creatures that seem to have disappeared from the earth.	2008
J WESTO	Weston, Robert Paul	Zorgamazoo Imaginative and adventurous Katrina eludes her maniacal guardian to help Morty, a member of a vanishing breed of zorgles, with his quest to uncover the fate of the fabled zorgles of Zorgmazoo as well as of other creatures that seem to have disappeared from the earth.	2008
J WILLI	Williams, Vera B.	Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart Two sisters help each other deal with life while their mother is working and their father has been sent to jail.	2001
J WOODS	Woodson, Jacqueline	Peace, Locomotion Through letters to his little sister, who is living in a different foster home, sixth-grader Lonnie, also known as "Locomotion," keeps a record of their lives while they are apart, describing his own foster family, including his foster brother who returns home after losing a leg in the Iraq War.	2009
J ZIMME	Zimmer, Tracie	Reaching for Sun Josie, who lives with her mother and grandmother and has cerebral palsy, befriends a boy who moves into one of the rich houses behind her old farmhouse.	2007
J ZIMME	Zimmer, Tracie Vaughn	42 Miles As her thirteenth birthday approaches, JoEllen decides to bring together her two separate lives--one as Joey, who enjoys weekends with her father and other relatives on a farm, and another as Ellen, who lives with her mother in a Cincinnati apartment near her school and friends.	2008
J811	Glenn, Mel	Jump Ball - A Basketball Season in Poems Tells the story of a high school basketball team's season through a series of poems reflecting the feelings of students, their families, teachers, and coaches.	1997
J811	Hopkins, Lee Bennett	Been to Yesterdays - Poems of a Life Autobiographical poems capture a thirteen-year-old boy's feelings, experiences, and aspirations in one tumultuous year of his life.	1995
J811 MONJO	Monjo, F.N.	The Sea Beggar's Son Relates in verse the exploits of the Dutch hero, Piet Heyn, whose capture of Spanish ships carrying valuable cargo was instrumental in Holland's overthrow of Spanish rule in the seventeenth century.	1974
J811	Seabrooke, Brenda	Judy Scuppernong Poems describe the daily experiences of four girls growing up in a small town in Georgia in the early 1950s.	1990
J811 SMITH	Smith, Hope Anita	The Way a Door Closes Hope Anita Smith tells the story of a young man's struggle to accept a father who has walked out on his family. Here, in CJ's words, is a portrait of hurt and healing, and finding the strength to open the door again.	2003
J811.54 FROST	Frost, Helen	Spinning Through the Universe - A Novel in Poems from Room 214 A collection of poems written in the voices of Mrs. Williams of room 214, her students, and a custodian about their interactions with each other, their families, and the world around them. Includes notes on the poetic forms represented.	2004
J811.54 GRIME	Grimes, Nikki	What is Goodbye? The Coretta Scott King Award-winning author of "Bronx Masquerade" presents this honest, powerful, and hopeful story, told in verse, of a young brother and sister who have lost their beloved older brother. Illustrations.	2004
J811.54 NELSO	Nelson, Marilyn	Carver - A Life in Poems This collection of poems provides a lyrical account of the life of George Washington Carver, a man born into slavery who went on to head the agricultural department at the Tuskegee Institute. Illustrations.	2001
J811.54 TESTA	Testa, Maria	Becoming Joe DiMaggio Maria Testa paints a picture of a timeless bond between a grandson and his immigrant grandfather - and of finding his own place in a brave new world.	2002
J811.54 TESTA	Testa, Maria	Something About America Inspired by true events that occurred in Maine in 2002, this powerful, lyrical novel explores immigration in contemporary America, narrated by a 13-year-old girl from Kosovo.	2005
J811.54 WOODS	Woodson, Jacqueline	Locomotion In a series of poems, eleven-year-old Lonnie writes about his life, after the death of his parents, separated from his younger sister, living in a foster home, and finding his poetic voice at school.	2003
J811.6 GROVE	Grover, Lorie Ann	Loose Threads A series of poems describes how seventh-grader Kay Garber faces her grandmother's battle with breast cancer while living with her mother and great-grandmother and dealing with everyday junior high school concerns.	2002
J821.9 BELLO	Belloc, Hilaire	Cautionary Tales for Children Known as a central figure in English literature, Hilaire Belloc produced a number of stunning, funny, and clever admonishments for children. The tales in this volume, illustrated by the inimitable Edward Gorey, contain instructive lessons for almost everyone.	2002

If you need help finding these or other Library materials, please check with anyone in Children's Services. We look forward to seeing you at the Library!

This list was created and is maintained by Children's Services Librarians.
Comments and suggestions can be sent to Becky White at bwhite@acpl.info, or to Mary R. Voors, Manager, Children's Services at mvoors@acpl.info.