To participate, I need to read at least three verse novels during the month of April.
Here are the four verse novels I've chosen:
If you'd like to join in, there's still time. Believe me, verse novels have a lot going for them. They're not only beautiful reads, but they don't take as much time to read as novels in prose. Two weeks is plenty of time. If you haven't read one before, now is your chance to dive in to a new reading experience.
Check out >>Caroline's blog<< for more information.
Here are some other verse novel titles I highly recommend*:
*I haven't read AUDITION yet, but man, it looks so good! Waiting for my library to get the print version so I don't have to read it on my computer.
Audition is on my pile to read.
ReplyDeleteSo far ... My favorite verse novel is Star Jumps
I dream of writing a novel in verse :)
Xx
Yay, Amy!
ReplyDeleteOh my, I hardly have time to read even one book every month! Ha! But what a great challenge.
ReplyDeleteYay for your two Sharon Creech picks! Still love those two . . . and picked up another one of hers lately--but honestly as it wasn't really for 5 years and under, so I couldn't read it to my kids, I just never got to it! (The expiration date kept coming around, and I kept opting to read from the stack of adoption books I have sitting around . . . seasons, I guess!) When I get back into a 'reading for fun, and not just to my kids season, I'll have to come back for these rec'd!! A few fascinate me!
ReplyDeleteAnything by Ellen Hopkins, and Because I Am Furniture.
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Verse Verb
I've never read a verse novel, I've always felt a bit hesitant about them. But I do want to read some eventually, so thanks for the recommendations! I'll probably love them once I pick them up, but I take a while to warm up to new genres sometimes. :)
ReplyDeleteI love Lisa Ann Sandell's writing but I have not read that one. May B. was also really enjoyable. Verse novels are not my first choice when I sit down to read but I'd like to try some of these out. Let me know how they are! And I owe you an email!
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of a verse novel until now. Thanks for broadening my horizon! :)
ReplyDeleteI read Because I am Furniture and Crank. I did like them, but I also found it easier to start skimming with the short lines, especially with Crank, which was fairly long.
ReplyDeleteI loved "Crossing Stones" by Helen Frost. Beautiful story about a girl coming of age during WWI and how it shaped her family and the family across the stream who lost their son.
ReplyDeleteOkay so weird coincidence- one of my coworkers used to work at Zoo Atlanta with the gorillas. I asked her if she knew Ivan (of The One and Only Ivan) and she worked with him for several years!!! SO my language arts class will be reading it, then doing an interview project with her, then we are going to the zoo to meet Ivan!! Thanks for the awesome tip about the book! :)
ReplyDeleteI was a little hesitant before I read my first verse novel (ONE OF THOSE HIDEOUS BOOKS WHERE THE MOTHER DIES by Sonya Sones) but since then I've become obsessed. I love Ellen Hopkins (of course) and have read dozen of others. I like them so much, I wrote one, AUDACIOUS which comes out fall 2013 from Orca Books, with a sequel in 2014.
ReplyDeleteI have to jump in here and say (besides thank you for all the lovely comments and recommendations!) Caroline let me know that THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN is not technically a verse novel. I opened it up and, sure enough, it's not! It is very spare in its prose, however, and I'm still excited to read it. Just wanted to let everyone know in case my mention of it caused any confusion.
ReplyDeleteAnd I CANNOT believe I left off one of my VERY FAVORITE verse novels of all: OUT OF THE DUST by Karen Hesse. It was the first verse novel I ever read and it rocked my world!