Middle School Novels in Verse (teens)

Chronicles the story of the last Africans brought illegally to the United States on the Clotilda in 1860.

Perfect for fans of Hatchet and the I Survived series, this harrowing middle grade debut novel-in-verse from a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet tells the story of a young girl who wakes up one day to find herself utterly alone in her small Colorado town. When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She's alone--left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated...

"A group of children investigate the threat that prompted large-scale evacuations in this "solid and engrossing" (Booklist) companion novel to the New York Times bestselling Alone told in multiple POVs. After an imminent yet unnamed danger forces people across Colorado to leave their homes, a group of kids including an aspiring filmmaker and a budding journalist find themselves in the same evacuation camp. As they cope with the aftermath of having...

"In this follow-up to Newbery-winner THE CROSSOVER, soccer, family, love, and friendship take center stage. Twelve-year-old Nick learns the power of words as he wrestles with problems at home, stands up to a bully, and tries to impress the girl of his dreams. Helping him along are his best friend and sometimes teammate Coby, and The Mac, a rapping librarian who gives Nick inspiring books to read. This electric and heartfelt novel-in-verse by poet...

"A bolt of lightning on my kicks ... The court is sizzling. My sweat is drizzling. Stop all that quivering. Cuz tonight I'm delivering," raps basketball phenom Josh Bell. Thanks to his dad, he and his twin brother, Jordan, are kings on the court, with crossovers that make even the toughest ballers cry. But Josh has more than hoops in his blood. He's got a river of rhymes flowing through him - a sick flow that helps him find his rhythm when everything's...

Based on a true story and told in alternating voices, follows the growing friendship between thirteen-year-old American Claire and Karl, a young German POW hired to work on her family's Michigan apple farm in October 1944.

Seventh-grade Alex's favorite things to do are watching YouTube videos of rocket launches with his Papi and spending hours on the NASA website reading about astronauts and planets. He even dreams of going to space one day himself, and knows he'll have to study hard in order to get there. But Alex is in his grade's SC (self-contained) classroom, which means doing the same dull worksheets every day and reading books his sister read back in the third...

A novel in verse tells how three remarkable women--Mary Agnes Chase, Marguerite Thomas Williams, and Sophie Mack Lutterlough--pursue their scientific passions despite societal barriers, and achieve groundbreaking success in botany, geology, and entomology.

While under house arrest for one year for stealing a wallet, young Timothy keeps free-verse notes on his life in a court-ordered journal as he deals with having a sick brother and tries to stay out of trouble.

Based on the lives, rescue, and continuing friendship of British evacuees Bess Walder, 15, and Beth Cummings, 14, who spent fourteen hours in the North Atlantic with their hands grasped across their overturned lifeboat after the Nazis torpedoed the SS City of Benares on route to Canada in 1940. Includes historical notes.