SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About/Contact
  • Book Discussion
  • Heavy Medal Mock
  • Process

October 31, 2016 by Jonathan Hunt

Verse Novel Roundup

October 31, 2016 by Jonathan Hunt   2 comments

We’ve already said it’s been an exceptionally strong year for poetry, and if you include novels in verse (not to mention FREE VERSE, a novel that celebrates and incorporates poetry, but is not a verse novel), then it is a phenomenally strong year.  We’ve already discussed BOOKED, a fairly strong contender on its own merits, but even more so when compared to the rest of the field.

9781629797403_p0_v2_s192x300GARVEY’S CHOICE by Nikki Grimes . . . Grimes’s previous verse novel with Wordsong, WORDS WITH WINGS, garnered a CSK Honor Award and an ALSC Notable book.  This similarly strong offering uses Japanese tankas to compare and contrast the relationship between Garvey and his father (who wants his overweight son to be more athletic) to the relationship between Garvey and his best and only friend Joe, a friendship which nurtures and supports Garvey’s true talent as a gifted vocalist.9780763675769_p0_v1_s118x184

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

APPLESAUCE WEATHER by Helen Frost . . . Could this be Helen Frost’s Newbery breakthrough?  Most of her books are pitched to a middle school audience, although clearly accessible to upper elementary students; this one is pitched straight at that upper elementary audience and is even accessible to second and third graders.  This one keeps the nostalgia and sentimentality in check to relay the poignant story of how siblings Peter and Faith await the arrival of Uncle Arthur for apple season, the first time since Aunt Lucy died.

9780062415240_p0_v1_s192x300MOO by Sharon Creech . . . Creech incorporates prose, various font sizes, and creative spacings to spice up her latest offering.  It’s the story of siblings, Reena and Luke, who move to Maine, next door to the farm of Mrs. Falala.  They are tasked with helping.  They eventually warm up to her, and vice versa.  While this is a good book, I’m not sure it rises above the field of verse novels, let alone all the other forms of distinguished literature.  In LOVE THAT DOG, Creech wrote one of the most endearing and enduring verse novels in the canon, but this one doesn’t measure up to that–or more relevantly in terms of our Newbery discussion to some of these others.9781629794297_p0_v2_s192x300

CATCHING A STORYFISH by Janice Harrington . . . You may know this author from her excellent picture books, THE CHICKEN-CHASING QUEEN OF LAMAR COUNTY and GOING NORTH.  I thought perhaps she had also written novels, but I can’t find them.  No matter.  Moving from Alabama to Illinois is hard on Keet, but her grandfather encourages her to catch her inner storyfish.  An author’s note details ten of the poetic forms used in the book.  Another fine Wordsong offering.

9781481465656FINDING WONDERS by Jeanne Atkins . . . For BORROWED NAMES, Atkins pulled such disparate figures together as Marie Curie, Madam C.J. Walker, and Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Here her three historical protagonists–Maria Merian, Mary Anning, Maria Mitchell–all share an interest in science, suggesting that fictional protagonists such as Calpurnia Tate and Faith Sunderly (in the tragically ineligible THE LIE TREE) are not anomalies at all.9780763678111

TO STAY ALIVE by Skila Brown . . . You may remember discussing Brown’s debut novel, CAMINAR, on this blog a couple years ago.  She returns this year with a poetry collection in picture book form, SLICKETY QUICK, and this, her second verse novel, which adopts the first person narrative of Mary Ann Graves, a young survivor of the ill-fated Donner party.  Taking off my Newbery hat for a minute, this is a great fit for California history curriculum in fourth grade, but I think it may actually be middle school students who get the most bang for their buck here.

9780545934275UNBOUND by Ann Burg . . . After a pair of contemporary works in ALL THE BROKEN PIECES and SERAFINA’S PROMISE, Burg delivers us another historical novel in verse to consider.  Some folks went north on the Underground Railroad, but Grace and her family instead venture into the Dismal Swamp, a remote wilderness area, to hide from the would be slave catchers.  The short, clipped lines are effective.  One review thought the Southern patois might be challenging.  I didn’t think that, but did wonder how it might play in the aftermath of the WHEN WE WAS FIERCE dust up.  To be sure, I’m not equating them.  Just wondering.9781481449380

YOU CAN FLY by Carole Boston Weatherford/AMERICAN ACE by Marilyn Nelson . . . I actually prefer Weatherford’s text to FREEDOM IN CONGO SQUARE , but this is a solid and welcome homage to the Tuskegee Airman.  Ironically, Marilyn Nelson also published a verse novel on that subject this year.  I preferred the 9780803733053_p0_v1_s192x300narrative voice of YOU CAN FLY, but preferred the narrative structure of AMERICAN ACE with the white boy unexpected discovering his African American heritage.

 

 

Filed under: Uncategorized

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments

About Jonathan Hunt

Jonathan Hunt is the Coordinator of Library Media Services at the San Diego County Office of Education. He served on the 2006 Newbery committee, and has also judged the Caldecott Medal, the Printz Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. You can reach him at hunt_yellow@yahoo.com

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

January 2023

FREEWATER wins the Newbery Medal, live reactions from Heavy Medal bloggers

by Jonathan Hunt

January 2023

Heavy Medal Mock Newbery Webcast Results

by Jonathan Hunt

December 2022

Calling all Mock Newbery Enthusiasts: Join the 2023 Heavy Medal Award Committee

by Jonathan Hunt

October 2022

Two More Titles: November Nomination Time

by Jonathan Hunt

September 2022

85 Books to Consider: Mock Newbery Suggestions Updated

by Jonathan Hunt

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

BLUE FLOATS AWAY Turns Two!

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Review of the Day – Bear and Bird: The Picnic and Other Stories by Jarvis

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Review: Swim Team

by Esther Keller

Heavy Medal

March suggestions: early Mock Newbery possibilities

by Emily Mroczek-Bayci

Teen Librarian Toolbox

Write What You Know. Read What You Don’t, a guest post by Lauren Thoman

by Amanda MacGregor

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey Try Something New

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

A Long Time Coming: Angeline Boulley's 'Firekeeper's Daughter' Takes 2022 Printz Award

2021 Youth Media Awards Winners

Children’s Publishing World Reacts to Michaela Goade's History-Making Caldecott Medal, Rest of the YMA Winners

Susan Cooper on her Wartime Childhood and How Writing Is "Fed by My Unconscious" | The Newbery at 100

Ringing in the Newbery (and Caldecott): An awards-trivia smackdown with Betsy Bird and Travis Jonker

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Joe says

    October 31, 2016 at 3:26 pm

    The only one I read on this list was UNBOUND, which I thought was excellent. Maybe not Newbery-worthy, but certainly a book that achieves great heights.

    The voice was particularly distinctive. I think Burg approached the dialect carefully – Grace’s voice felt so authentic to me, and as a character she nearly leaps off the page. The transcripts from the FWP are occasionally cringe-worthy, but the attempt to capture the nuances of the language are there. And I think Burg is respectful and restrained in her writing.

    The poetry was good, but never really reached the heights of, say, Julie Fogliano’s TOMATOES (which I just read) or Carol Boston Weatherford’s CONGO SQ. Sometimes it just felt like sentences chopped up and arranged like poetry. A solid outing, but not particularly noteworthy to me.

  2. Jonathan Hunt says

    November 2, 2016 at 2:54 pm

    Marilyn Nelson award news!

    http://www.neustadtprize.org/marilyn-nelson-announced-2017-nsk-neustadt-prize-childrens-literature-winner/

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

  • Other Mock Newbery Sites

    • Anderson’s Bookshops
    • For Those About to Mock
    • Good Reads Mock Newbery
    • Northport-East Northport PL
    • Rhode Island OLIS
  • Resources

    • Jen J's Starred Reviews Spreadsheet
    • Newbery Manual
    • Newbery Medal & Honor Books
    • Newbery Terms & Criteria
  • Follow This Blog

    Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

    This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

    This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

    Primary Sidebar

    • News & Features
    • Reviews+
    • Technology
    • School Libraries
    • Public Libraries
    • Age Level
    • Ideas
    • Blogs
    • Classroom
    • Diversity
    • People
    • Job Zone

    Reviews+

    • Book Lists
    • Best Books
    • Media
    • Reference
    • Series Made Simple
    • Tech
    • Review for SLJ
    • Review Submissions

    SLJ Blog Network

    • 100 Scope Notes
    • A Fuse #8 Production
    • Good Comics for Kids
    • Heavy Medal
    • Neverending Search
    • Teen Librarian Toolbox
    • The Classroom Bookshelf
    • The Yarn

    Resources

    • 2022 Youth Media Awards
    • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
    • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
    • Summer Reading 2021
    • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
    • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
    • Summer Programming Survey
    • Research
    • White Papers / Case Studies
    • School Librarian of the Year
    • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
    • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

    Events & PD

    • In-Person Events
    • Online Courses
    • Virtual Events
    • Webcasts
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Media Inquiries
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Content Submissions
    • Data Privacy
    • Terms of Use
    • Terms of Sale
    • FAQs
    • Diversity Policy
    • Careers at MSI


    COPYRIGHT © 2023


    COPYRIGHT © 2023