Verse Novel Recs for International Women's Day

Hello!

Happy International Women's Day!

This past month, I received the following message:

I am humbled and overjoyed by this news. It's no small thing that over ten years after it was published, I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME is continuing to be discovered and loved in schools across America. I'm deeply thankful to librarians for continuing to put my verse novels in front of students.

In light of that, I wanted to visit (or revisit) some of my favorite verse novels by female authors because today is International Women's Day - what a great day to lift these amazing authors up. In order to save time, I'm not posting photos of the covers but instead providing links to indiebound.org via the title so you can read more about the book and check out the cover. In case you have kids, I'm providing the recommended age, but please know adults can and do also enjoy these books.

Title: AUDACITY

Author: Melanie Crowder

Recommended Age: 12 and up

Short Description: The inspiring story of Clara Lemlich, whose fight for equal rights led to the largest strike by women in American history

Title: MAY B.

Author: Caroline Starr Rose

Recommended Age: 8-12

Short Description: This historical novel, told in verse, brings to life the rigors faced by homesteaders on the Kansas prairie in the late 1870s. May Betts unexpectedly finds herself stranded, alone, in a sod house some distance from her family. As winter approaches, she must find food and fuel to stay alive and figure out how to get home before the cruel weather or roving wolves are the death of her. 

Title: BROWN GIRL DREAMING

Author: Jacqueline Woodson

Recommended Age: 10 and up

Short Description: Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement.

Title: OTHER WORDS FOR HOME

Author: Jasmine Warga

Recommended Age: 8-12

Short Description: A gorgeously written, hopeful middle grade novel in verse about a young girl who must leave Syria to move to the United States.

Title: HOUSE ARREST

Author: K.A. Holt

Recommended Age: 12 and up

Short Description: Timothy is a good kid who did a bad thing. Now he's under house arrest for a whole year. 

Title: BLOOD WATER PAINT

Author: Joy McCullough

Recommended Age: 12 and up

Short Description: Her mother died when she was twelve, and suddenly Artemisia Gentileschi had a stark choice: a life as a nun in a convent or a life grinding pigment for her father's paint. She chose paint.

Title: HOME OF THE BRAVE

Author: Katherine Applegate

Recommended Age: 10-14

Short Description: Kek comes from Africa where he lived with his mother, father, and brother. But only he and his mother have survived. Now she's missing, and Kek has been sent to a new home.

I could go on and on, but my time is up. Need to get back to working on my books! I'll do more of this in the future. My verse novels (ages 12 and up) are all listed on THIS PAGE. 

Happy reading!!

Lisa