Novels in Verse- Why I Love Them and Use Them

Hey Guys! 
So this is the second Mondays with Mandy (or Mira) and unfortunately, I hit a technology problem. (Boo!)
I created a video and as I was near the end, the program froze and apparently didn't save. (Sad face.)   I'm posting the text version now. But if I can recover it, I will post the video version.

 (Stay tuned.)

I have a secret. 

I am a book-a-holic reading teacher.
I abuse Amazon’s “one click” and “add to cart” buttons.
I spent my entire first year teaching salary on children’s books.

Okay, those aren’t secrets. (Except maybe the salary fact.) 

The real secret: I hated reading: as a child, as a teenager, and as a young adult.

As a child, I whined and complained that I wanted to be outside instead of reading. As a teenager, I cheated my way through book reports and English assignments.  As a young adult, I spent more time trying to avoid reading than I would have spent actually reading the book.  (Such things included cliff's notes, the movie version of the book, and if I was really desperate, the audio book.)

Thankfully, when I entered the education program in college, I met a brilliant professor. She began and ended every class with a fantastic picture book.  It was then, that I finally discovered the joy of reading.

However, even today, I still check the length of chapters in any book I’m about to read.   I would prefer to read a longer book that has very short chapters versus a really long short story.

I think it’s visually deceiving or it gives me a sense of accomplishment to complete one short chapter.
All I have to do is get through this two page chapter and I will feel successful.

It's sort of the same feeling as checking things off a list.

1. Get up. Check.

2. Drink Coffee. Check.

3. Take dog for walk. Check.

So when I first discovered novels in verse, I was thrilled. The format looked so easy. It sort of felt like cheating. The first one I ever read was Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse.

Secret #2
I avoided this book many years before I discovered its format because:

1. It looked boring. I mean, who wants to read about the dust bowl?

2. It was a novel.  I didn’t have time to struggle through a boring novel I didn’t want to read anyway.

3. It was historical fiction. Anything that will teach me something about history wasn’t meant to be read for pleasure. 

However, when I read it in under two hours, I was shocked.  Its format wasn’t intimidating. I wasn’t intending to read for two hours that day, but I flew through it. And the exact same thing happens with the kids I teach.

Novels in verse are like legal gateway drugs that lead kids to the best addiction ever: books. 

Why Kids Love'em
*Short format
*Some contain illustrations
*Emotionally driven stories 
*Short format

Why Teachers Love'em
*Kids read and enjoy them
*Exposure to poetry forms
*Added supplement to history lesson (for Historical Novels in Verse)
*Great for practicing reading strategies such as visualizing and inferencing.
*Can be used to practice fluency by performing the poems.
*Kids read and enjoy them

Top Three Favorites

Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
This one is a middle grade novel in verse. I love it because tough kids, especially boys will be able to relate to Lonnie. Plus, I always love books that have a main character who writes or discovers to write poetry.  Lonnie not only learns to write poetry, but he uses it as a way of dealing with his emotions.

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
This novel in verse is middle grade historical fiction. I find this one fascinating because it's authentic in historical details, yet the voice of the main character, Ha, is so powerful and real that kids will feel as though Ha is their best friend.

October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Leslea Newman
This young adult, novel in verse is one of my absolute favorites. It is written in a variety of poetic forms and told from multiple view points. This is one of the most emotional books I've ever read. I cried on nearly every poem.  Have you ever read a book that stuck with you, physically and emotionally long after you finished reading it? This one definitely will.

What are your favorite novels in verse?  How do your kids or students respond to them?

Check back in a day or so for a compiled list of Novels in Verse you can download. 
But for now, here is a visual list: Novels in Verse.