verse novel

A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez by María Dolores Águila – Book Recommendation

| Tasha

A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez by María Dolores Águila

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Publication Date: September 16, 2025

Reviewed from library copy

ISBN: 9781250342614

Based on a true story, this verse novel set in the 1930s tells the story of a community that refuses to be silent in the face of racism. In San Diego, Roberto is the youngest of the children in his family. When the local school board decides that the Mexican-American children must attend a different school than the white children, they build a school in a barn for them. But the majority of the families refuse to send their children there. The families form a group and stand up for themselves in court, raising money by selling goods and food items. Roberto, at age 12, is selected to be the face of the children impacted by the decision. Despite losing friends to deportation and being expelled himself, he must find the courage to give voice to his community.

Incredibly timely and impactful, this book uses poetry as a vehicle for readers to understand Roberto and his point of view. From the beauty of his community to the hatred spewed at them to the threats they endured, his emotions are bared on the page. Written with immense restraint and simplicity, Águila shares the full story of the history while humanizing it with Roberto’s voice.

Powerful and heart-wrenching. Appropriate for ages 8-12.

Truth Is by Hannah V. Sawyerr – Book Recommendation

| Tasha

Truth Is by Hannah V. Sawyerr 

Publisher: Amulet Books

Publication Date: September 23, 2025

Reviewed from library copy

ISBN: 9781419776830

Truth is 17 and not sure what she wants to do after she graduates this year. When she finds out that she is pregnant, she has one more choice to make. Her best friend assumes that Truth will have the baby, but Truth isn’t sure. She can’t tell her verbally abusive mother about being pregnant, since her mother has made it clear that her own teenage pregnancy that resulted in Truth being born ruined her life. She doesn’t want to let the baby’s father know either. Luckily, Truth finds a space in which she can start to process her own decisions and find a way forward: slam poetry. As Truth struggles to make slam practice while dealing with her pregnancy and her decision, she continues to lie until one of her poems gets released online and people learn what her decision was. It’s time for truth.

Brilliantly written in verse, this story of a teenage Black girl finding her voice in slam poetry and standing on her own despite the many critical people around her is triumphant. It is one of the few YA novels about choosing to have an abortion that shares that as a valid choice without ongoing emotional trauma. Truth is such a real person, making mistakes, dealing with consequences and still dreaming of a different future than others see for her. Her relationship with her best friend and her mother are rendered with complexity and a deep understanding for Truth herself. 

A great verse novel that speaks to the power of choice and voice. Appropriate for ages 15+.

The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner – Book Review

| Tasha

The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner (9781547616398)

Finn isn’t having a good end of school. He has missed lots of gym class, hasn’t turned in his poetry project about heroes, and just kicked over a gravestone. He’s in big trouble for that last one. It turns out the grave is that of a local Adirondack High Peaks heroine, so her daughter reaches out to see if they can make a deal. She will drop the charges if Finn climbs all 46 of the High Peaks by Labor Day. Plus, he has to take along the dead woman’s dog who loves to hike. As Finn begins to hike and reach summits, he learns a lot along the way, particularly about his anger towards his father who died recently and was by everyone else’s account a hero.

As I read this book, I was in awe of Messner’s skill. She combines so many disparate elements into a book that feels organic and beautiful. Her use of a verse novel format makes so much sense here, allowing us to feel what Finn does even as he is in denial about much of it. His poetry project weaves its way through the verse, capturing his voice and rage. Finn can’t see himself through most of the book, can’t see the people around him and their support, can’t see his father and the truth about him, can’t find his way through.

This is a book about what nature can do for a person who is lost and not looking to be rescued. It is a book about the various ways that heroes enter our lives, the forms they take that are unexpected and sometimes drooling dogs, the connection that can result in shared experiences. It is about so much at once and yet again, is superbly focused and deftly written. Messner shows her mastery here.

A mountain of heart, a range of emotions, and quite a summit of a book. Appropriate for ages 8-12.

Reviewed from library copy.

Me (Moth) by Amber McBride

| Tasha
Cover image for Me (Moth).

Me (Moth) by Amber McBride (9781250780362)

Moth’s family were all killed in a car accident that left her face scarred. Now she lives with her aunt, who barely acknowledges her presence. She goes to school where is also ignored. Moth used to be a dancer, movement was her way of expressing herself, but she can’t dance anymore. When Sani, a new boy, starts at her school, Moth is immediately drawn to him. Sani too is grappling with his own depression. He lives with his mother whose new boyfriend beats him. So when Moth’s aunt leaves her without even saying goodbye, Sani and Moth set off on a road trip together, heading across the country to Sani’s father’s home with the Diné people. The trip brings them closer together and they both discover the connections that were there all along.

It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel, since it is done with such skill and confidence. Written in verse, so much is left implied and unsaid, unrevealed until McBride is ready for us to understand and the characters are ready to see it too. Combining Hoodoo Black traditions with Navajo/Diné, the book is filled with a deep sense of spirituality and connectivity to ancestors and those who have passed on.

The writing is exceptional, filled with moments that are breathtakingly and achingly gorgeous and others that are difficult and dark. The book is filled with wonder despite the difficulties both characters face. It’s a love story, of two people coming together through their families’ traditions, the way they are initially drawn to one another, and then a slow-building deeper connection they create together.

A book like a moth that will metamorphose right in front of you. Appropriate for ages 13-18.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Feiwel and Friends.

Your Heart, My Sky by Margarita Engle

| Tasha
Cover image for Your Heart, My Sky.

Your Heart, My Sky by Margarita Engle (9781534464964)

Liana and Amado are trying to survive Cuba’s el período especial en tiempos de paz—the special period in times of peace, in the 1990s. The time period when the Cuban government’s strict rules after the collapse of the Soviet Union threw the population into famine. Liana avoids the summer labor she has been assigned to, even though she opens her family to retribution. She spends her days instead with a dog she met, a special singing dog who helps bring her together with Amado. Amado is the brother of a prisoner, which already puts his family under additional scrutiny. He wants to follow in his brother’s pacifist footsteps as the mandatory military service looms in his future. As Liana and Amado come together, they must find a way to help one another survive starvation while seeing if they can have any future together at all.

Engle is the master of the verse novel, weaving her incredible poetry into tales of Cuba. This time, her focus on a period of starvation in Cuba is particularly exceptional. She creates a beautiful romance between two people (and a special dog) in the midst of such political upheaval and danger. The romance is captivating but it is the state of Cuba itself that creates the energy and horror in the story. From people dying of starvation to political imprisonment to casting yourself on the water to try to reach America. There are no easy decisions here, all ways lead to death or prison.

As always, Engle’s books are captivating. Her writing is marvelous, building the romance from tentative first meetings to real love and connection in an organic and honest way. The characters themselves are beautifully drawn. Similar in their situation, they find themselves reacting in very different ways that drive them apart. Their plans for the future seem disparate but could just be the way they can survive and be together after all.

Tense and horrifying, this poetic look at starvation in Cuba is riveting. Appropriate for ages 13-17.

Reviewed from copy provided by Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo

| Tasha
Cover image for Home Is Not a Country.

Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo (9780593177051)

Nima has always wished that she was different somehow. Part of it is the loss of her father before she was born. Part of it is that she doesn’t feel like she fits into her suburban home in America. Part of it is that she isn’t connected enough to her Sudanese heritage. Haitham, a boy who lives nearby, is her only friend and when he is injured after they argue, Nima finds herself adrift and spending days without talking to anyone. She dreams about a fantasy life where her father wasn’t killed, she has a large extended family, and her mother is not overworked and exhausted. Soon those dreams lead to her taking risks, inviting a hungry spirit into her life, one who looks a lot like her and can show her the life of her dreams. But what is the cost of these dreams?

Told in exceptional poetry, this verse novel for teens is a deep look at racism, Islamophobia, and being part of a large diaspora. Elhillo’s poetry is some of the best I have read in a YA verse novel. She captures the dark emotions of loneliness, hate crimes, and lack of self-esteem with such clarity and empathy. Her poetry shows the importance of family, whether it is imagined or real. It shows the dangers of wanting to escape your life and of the potential of losing it all along the way.

Nima is the sort of protagonist that readers will want to shake and comfort. She is incredibly lonely, spending her evenings isolated and her days silent. Her relationship with her mother is complex and well drawn, creating both tension and connection in turns. Readers will see themselves in Nima, in dreaming of alternate lives and outcomes. They will get a close look at the experience of an immigrant family that keeps secrets in order to survive.

Incredible writing combines with a gorgeous story of loneliness and risk. Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from library copy.

The Canyon’s Edge by Dusti Bowling

| Tasha
Cover image for The Canyon’s Edge

The Canyon’s Edge by Dusti Bowling (9780316494694)

This novel in verse tells a harrowing survival story. After losing her mother in a random shooting at her birthday celebration, Nora has been through lots of therapy trying to just survive the loss. Her father has cocooned them both, keeping Nora from returning to school and remaining isolated from everyone. For her birthday a year after the shooting, he takes Nora to a slot canyon in the Arizona desert. The two rappel down into the canyon together, remembering the many times they made similar journeys with her mother. But once again their lives are shattered by the unexpected as a flash flood rips through the canyon, separating Nora from her father and all of her supplies. Her father is washed away with the flood after shoving Nora high enough up the canyon wall to not be swept away. Now Nora must face her doubts and mental demons while also surviving sunburn, starvation, scorpions and dehydration as she searches for her father.

Bowling’s set up for the story alone would make a great tale, a girl surviving the loss of her mother in a shooting incident. Bowling though takes that first tragedy and builds on it, creating a new dangerous challenge for Nora to survive. The way that she uses what Nora learned in therapy, what Nora’s doubts are and her growing resilience is tremendous. She never becomes didactic, instead allowing Nora to steadily grow stronger mentally and know that she is capable of so much. Along the way, she also admits to herself how she has pushed her best friend away too.

The writing here is stellar, the pacing exactly right. Bowling will shock readers as she moves from the quiet of the canyon to the power of the flood. Then they are thrown directly into a survival story, one where Nora is not spared from a variety of injuries even as her mind and resilience grow. There is so much determination and grit in her, so much strength!

Verse novel meets survival story in this book that will carry you away. Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from library copy.

All He Knew by Helen Frost

| Tasha
All He Knew cover image

All He Knew by Helen Frost (9780374312992)

Henry started out life talking and able to hear, until a fever took his hearing as a small child. By the time Henry is six, he is labeled as “unteachable.” He is turned away from the school for the deaf after failing their test, refusing to blow out a candle when asked. His parents are encouraged to send him to an institution where he will be cared for. Given their lack of money during the years before World War II, they reluctantly agree. Henry is sent to Riverview, where his life becomes bleak, food is often scarce, children are beaten and restrained. He makes some dear friends there though, working to protect and care for them even as the system works to tear them down. When World War II starts, Victor arrives at Riverview. He’s a conscientious objector, sent to work as an attendant there. He quickly learns that Henry is far from unteachable, reaching out to Henry’s family, including Henry’s beloved sister who has always seen that Henry is smart and kind.

Frost is a master at the verse novel, creating entire worlds that spin by with her poetry. Here the verse draws readers into the darkness of Riverview. One could get caught in that dark, but Henry is there to show a way to see the squirrels outside the window, make friends with some of the other children, and find a way to live one day at a time. While he misses his family horribly and does not understand what happened to make them send him there, he understands much more than everyone thinks he does.

Frost keeps hope at the center of the book. She uses both Victor and Henry’s sister and family members in this way. They all love Henry, trying to figure out how best to deal with an impossible situation exacerbated by poverty and wartime. But hope really is an inherent part of Henry himself, who faces every day and its brutal challenges with a touch of humor, a courage to defend his friends, and a determination to survive.

An important look at how those with disabilities were treated in our country and how conscientious objectors made a difference in their lives. Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from copy provided by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

| Tasha

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (9780062882769)

After a plane crashes on its way to the Dominican Republic, two families are impacted with grief and loss. Camino lives in the Dominican Republic with her auntie who is a local healer. She dreams of becoming a doctor and going to college in America. Her father, who died in the plane crash, lived most of the time in New York City, spending every summer with Camino. In New York City, Yahaira’s father was also killed in the crash. Yahaira had adored her father until she discovered his secret. She had been his champion chess player, competing and winning for him. But once she found out that he had another family in the Dominican Republic, she never forgave him. Now he is gone and it isn’t until they are preparing for his funeral that Yahaira and Camino discover that they are half-sisters born within months of one another.

Written in verse, this novel moves between the perspectives of Camino and Yahaira. The book begins with their father still alive and quickly moves to the crash and the shock of loss. The differences between their lives are stark with the poverty of the Dominican Republic clearly depicted as well as the dangers for teen girls. Still, it is also shown as a place of strong community, loving families, with bright colors, great food and warm welcomes.

Acevedo so clearly could have allowed the revelation of their shared father to be the defining moment of both of the girls’ lives. But she moves beyond it, creating a bond between these two teenagers that is powerful and haunting. It is not automatic, but steadily built as the trust grows between them, offering them both a way forward from the crash that they never anticipated.

Beautifully written, this is another marvel of a read from Acevedo. Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Quill Tree Books.