April is poetry month. I am a big fan of novels-in-verse. This year’s Newbery winner falls into this category, too. This week I had 7th graders take 5 minutes and read a random novel-in-verse to sample a taste. Most seemed to enjoy being able to quickly read and turn the pages. They appeared proud of their progress in such a short space of time. I have at least 50 titles in my school library and wonder if it will be recognized with its own award category soon? Some of my favorites include; “Reaching for the Sun” (which won a Batchelder award), “Hugging the Rock,” “Pieces of Georgia,” and “I Heart you, You Haunt Me.” Jen Bryant writes a lot of this type of book and bases them on real-life events, such as “The Trial,” which is based on the Lindberg baby kidnapping, ‘Ringside 1925,” based on the Scopes Monkey trial. Paul Janeczko wrote a novel in verse “World’s Afire” based on the tragic Hartford circus fire. This year a novel in verse biography was published about Raul Wallenberg, a hero of WWII. They are a different way to enjoy poetry month.
