Books written in new and different ways: verse and poetry, as well as music-themed stories, across genres and interest levels.
YA Novels in Verse
Compiled by:
Tyana H. & Fern S.
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Grehan)
It starts when Claudia offers Immy a yellow rose. Immy has been in love before; many times, across many lifetimes. But never as deeply, as intensely as this. Claudia has never been in love this before either. But then, this is her first time with a vampire.
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Atta)
Michael has navigated what it means to be Greek-Cypriot and Jamaican, but never quite feels Greek or Black enough. As he gets older, his coming out is only the start of learning who he is and where he fits in.
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Elliott)
A modern twist on the Theseus and Minotaur myth.
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Browne)
Picked on at home, criticized for talking trash while beating boys at basketball, and always seen as less than her best friend, a girl struggles to like and accept herself.
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Acevedo)
Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people ... In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance -- and Papi's secrets -- the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered.
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Iloh)
A multi-heritage dancer's coming of age within the African diaspora is shaped by abuse at the hands of a cousin, her mother's descent into addiction, and her father's efforts to create a Nigerian-inspired home in America. Will she find the courage to shape a life of her own?
(Juvenile Fiction – J Lai)
A young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama.
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Reynold)
As 15-year-old Will sets out to avenge his brother Shawn's fatal shooting, seven ghosts who knew Shawn board the elevator and reveal truths Will needs to know.
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Powell)
Mildred Loving, an African American girl, and Richard Loving, a Caucasian boy, challenge the Virginia law forbidding interracial marriages in the 1950s.
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Mcbride)
Moth, who lost her family in an accident, and Sani, who's battling ongoing depression, take a road trip that has them chasing ghosts and searching for ancestors, which helps them move forward in surprising, powerful, and unforgettable ways.
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Charles)
For Denver, music is everything. She and her best friends sing their way into the orbit of the biggest R&B star in the world. He gives them everything, plus hours in the recording studio. Even the painful sacrifices and the lies the girls have to tell are all worth it, until they're not.
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Culley)
Rynn was born with a hole in her heart--literally. Although it was fixed long ago, she still feels an emptiness there when she wonders about her birth family. As her relationship with her adoptive mother fractures, Rynn finally decides she needs to know more about the rest of her family.
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Woodfol)
A novel in verse that captures the unbalanced experience of an all-consuming love between two unnamed, queer, Black teen girls who move rapidly from strangerhood into a protective best friendship before becoming dysfunctional lovers and mutually destructive partners in crime.
(Juvenile Fiction – J Warga)
Sent with her mother to the safety of a relative's home in Cincinnati when her Syrian hometown is overshadowed by violence, Jude worries for the family members who were left behind as she adjusts to a new life with unexpected surprises.
(Adult Nonfiction - 811.6 Hep)
Christine Heppermann's powerful collection of free verse poems explore how girls are taught to think about themselves, their bodies, and their friends–as consumers, objects, and competitors. Based on classic fairy tale characters and tropes.
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Zoboi)
At just 16 years old, Amal's bright future is upended; he's 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 art. This never should have been his story. But, can he change it?
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Sones)
Molly Rosenberg reluctantly volunteers to participate in Santa Monica's annual homeless count. But when she ends up meeting Red, a homeless girl, Molly makes it her mission to reunite her with her family in time for Christmas.
(Adult Nonfiction - 811.54 And)
Searing and soul-searching, this important memoir is a denouncement of our society's failures and a love letter to all the people with the courage to say #MeToo and #TimesUp, whether aloud, online, or only in their own hearts.
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Alexand)
Seventeen-year-old Blade endeavors to resolve painful issues from his past and navigate the challenges of his former rock star father's addictions, scathing tabloid rumors, and a protected secret that threatens his own identity.
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Narvaez)
In Cuidad Juárez, Mexico in 1999, where kidnapping of girls and women is common, a woman approaches thirteen-year-old Anamaria claiming to be her future self, offering advice and requesting help.
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Venkatr)
In India, a girl who excels at Bharatanatyam dance refuses to give up after losing a leg in an accident.
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Frank)
Two very different girls bond while hospitalized for Crohn's disease.
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Wolf)
A recreation of the 1912 sinking of the Titanic as observed by millionaire John Jacob Astor, a beautiful young Lebanese refugee finds first love, the "Unsinkable" Molly Brown, Captain Smith, and others–including the iceberg itself.
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Wilson)
Sophie Scholl, a young German college student, challenges the Nazi regime during World War II as part of the White Rose, a non-violent resistance group.