Teacher Amber McMath, who teaches 7th grade language arts by day and blogs at I’m That Teacher by night, recently spent time researching and sharing novels in verse with her students and blog followers. Here, she shares how the experience impacted her personally, plus why she believes novels in verse are so important to teach.

“Poetry has the ability to create entire moments with just a few choice words. The spacing and line breaks create rhythm, a helpful musicality, a natural flow. The separate stanzas aid in perpetuating a kind of incremental reading, one small chunk at a time.

And the white space, for an intimidated reader, adds breathability to a seemingly suffocating task.” –Jason Reynolds (PBS)

Need to take a breath? Know a reader who needs to escape the suffocation of an overwhelming novel? Pick up a novel in verse. Wander around in the white space. Explore new cultures and lands. Cozy up to unforgettable characters. All in the comfort of beautifully written poetry.

Discovering New Novels in Verse

I promised my students and colleagues 30 excerpts from 30 middle grade novels in verse…in 30 days. Before this endeavor, I could rattle off maybe a dozen titles I knew, a handful I had read. Oh my, how things have changed! My hunt for these prized literary possessions turned into one of the most rewarding journeys I’ve experienced. These books became what I craved at the end of the day like my nightly bowl of cereal. I looked forward to where they would take me and who I would meet there.

Not to say that a book had never done that to me before, but these were different. These novels in verse have a magical way of making everything sound so precise. Every word so carefully chosen and put in its place. In these thirty books I stepped into familiar worlds with familiar character types, but these stories somehow felt like they were flying by. There is such little time for detail with so few words, yet one of the defining qualities I love about novels in verse is attention to vivid detail.

The variety is what struck me the most. These aren’t just realistic fiction middle school coming-of-age stories. The thirty I read represent a broad sampling of several genres, conflicts, topics and interests. And that’s just thirty! So many more grace our libraries, ready to give breath to our readers.

For instance, I used Jason Reynolds’ Long Way Down for our poetry focus this year. I replaced several poems with this one book that captivated my seventh-grade students. They enjoyed it so much I don’t think they noticed I was marking off poetry objectives as we went.

Through these novels in verse, my students and I were able to see and hear and experience so much more than the elevator ride in Long Way Down….

…a surprising birthday party in House Arrest

…a forbidden love in Loving vs Virginia

…a broken family in Moonrise

…a non-quinceañera in Under the Mesquite

a time to leave in Solo

a nostalgic son in All the Broken Pieces

an embarrassing bus ride in A Time to Dance

…and the list goes on.

Add a Breath of Fresh Air to Your Bookshelves

Please keep reading and recommending novels in verse to your students. They truly have an irreplaceable role in our reading lives. With April being National Poetry Month, this is the perfect time to add a breath of fresh air to your shelves!

If you want to see or purchase the list of novels in verse I compiled, you can find 25 of my favorites in this Favorite Novels in Verse Grades 6-9 collection available from Booksource.  

To see all the links and downloads I put together, follow this link to my blog. I ended up sharing multiple excerpts per book and put them in several formats and shared a Google folder, along with an image of one of the excerpts, to get attention! I also wrote a handful of discussion questions for each excerpt. If you haven’t read a book, there are summaries and age/grade recommendations so that you’ll know what’s best for your age group.

Enjoy, teachers!

About the Author:

Amber McMath gets a little crazier each day she spends with her seventh grade readers and writers in Owasso, OK. She is kept sane by her loving husband and adorable son. Before serving in Oklahoma she taught in Mali, West Africa. You can find a whole slew of stuff she shares for language arts teachers at www.imthatteacher.com. Follow her on twitter @mrsmcreading.