Answers to Go
SAN MARCOS PUBLIC LIBRARY 625 E. HOPKINS ST. 512-393-8200
I would like Q.to read some poetry for National Poetry Month but I have a hard time staying interested in traditional poetry collections. Do you have any book recommendations that would keep me engaged?
If you would A. like to read poetry but still want the familiarity of novel format, I recommend checking out a novel in verse. According to Poets.org, “The verse novel is a hybrid form in which a narrative with structural and stylistic similarities to a traditional novel is told through poetry.” This format can be more engaging to some readers because all the poems are linked together to tell one story.
Novels in verse can also be very appealing to reluctant readers. Compared to a conventional novel, a novel in verse has less words per page, so when readers open the book it’s not as intimidating. One of my coworkers has a son who was a reluctant reader, but now loves reading, thanks to Kwame Alexander’s “The Crossover.” He is so proud that he can read a 240-page book, which seemed nearly impossible to him before he discovered novels in verse.
If you’re new to reading novels in verse, try “Clap When You Land” by Elizabeth Acevedo. This novel is about two sisters losing their father, their hero, and finding each other along the way. Camino Rios lives with her aunt in the Dominican Republic, and waits all year for her dad to visit for the summer. Yahaira Rios lives in New York with her parents, and asks every year if she can go with her dad on his annual business trip. Neither sister knows about the other until their dad dies in a plane crash leaving New York for the Dominican Republic.
“Other Words for Home” by Jasmine Warga is another great verse novel. Jude never thought she’d leave her beloved older brother and father behind, all the way across the ocean in Syria. But when things in her hometown become volatile, Jude and her mother are sent to live in Cincinnati with relatives. The American movies that Jude has always loved haven’t quite prepared her for starting school in the US or her new label of “Middle Eastern,” an identity she’s never known before. This lyrical, lifeaffirming story is about losing and finding home and, most importantly, finding yourself.
“Punching the Air” by bestselling author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five, is a powerful novel in verse about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he’s seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. Suddenly, at just 16 years old, Amal’s bright future is upended. He is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art.
For more book recommendations, call or email the library at 512-393-8200 or smpl@ sanmarcostx.gov.
