After

Number two on the list 100 Must Read YA Books In Verse.

This was an evocative read.  I made an instant connection, naturally, because my mother attempted suicide when I was a teenager.  So I  know about after.  

Anna Gonzales takes her own life and the next day, starting with the principal, you can read their reactions.  A lot of facets are introduced here, from the points of view of different students and staff.  Not all of it is about Anna, which is perfectly normal.  After reading a few poems I reflected on my own experiences.  It's all about connections.  A book can mean more to you if you are able to make personal connections, and it doesn't even have to be about the central topic.
This is an important book and I strongly recommend it.  If you can't find this at your library you can find it  here at Open Library

5 to 1

Number one on the list 100 Must Read YA Books in Verse.  I don't think it was rated as the best book, just simply the first in a long list.  It was a good, quick read and the subject was something I had never read about before (though I saw, once, a documentary about India's girls so I can see the seeds for such a novel).  I won't get into the wherefore's here.  Just suffice it to say I am grateful that I do not live in India.

Again, (referring to After the Kiss) this novel is told from the perspective of two people, the female in verse the male in prose.  It is another really neat way of differentiating between the two as well as perhaps defining the characters (I'm not saying between sexes, but between personalities).
So, this story is in our future, the year is 2054, so not too far.  India has run out of women and chaos has ensued.  A closed off city has been built to protect what is left of the girls, and a new society is born.   With the ratio of five boys to one girl, there are competitions to show the suitability of each male where the girl ultimately chooses her mate.  Now bring on the dystopia...

I just want to veer off topic for a moment and ask, why do dystopia's get dumped into the genre of science fiction?  This novel, for instance, is not advanced technically in any way, not even in the science of genetics (which you would assume if you were a creepy, futuristic society intent on the breeding of girls).  But this isn't the case with this book.  Nothing sciency at all.  Goodreads even gave it a romance rating which, in my opinion, is really inappropriate.

So I think that at the most, this novel is food for thought, and I like that it is different from anything I have read so far.  I will also say that it has inspired me a little to want to write in the same way (though I haven't a clue about what!).

After the Kiss

Chosen from Book Riot's 100 Must-Read YA Books in Verse.  One of the really neat things about my new job is that it is in the same town as a library, so I have been taking advantage of the interlibrary loan system.  Which meant that this year I would give this list a try as I A.) love lists and B.) love verse novels. 
A lot of my reading goals this year are about young adult literature, awards etc, and I thought I would fit in genre as well because my library has novels arranged by genre.  I had originally thought this might be placed in the romance category, but after I finished reading it this morning, I felt that it definitely was NOT. 

This story is about two girls who have been played by the same boy.  Camille (new girl in town) tells her story in enjambement:-

“the goal is to keep yourself moving, remember? don't linger. don't hover. you are not going to stay.” 

She moves around a lot (her fathers job) and it is really hard for her to make connections with people.  I like how her verse softens her and shows how she rigidly encases herself in a protective shell.

Becca (hometown girl with boyfriend Alec), is all over the place and her free verses reflect all of the inner turmoil of her life, her obsession with her boyfriend to the exclusion of everything else.  Then there is the catalyst, a car accident, which forces Becca to get a job to pay for repairs, and make Alec one sulky boy who is not getting all of her attention.  Before the kiss:-

“my own chocolate center has filled up with poison,
the roses he gave me all twisted black” 

Becca's life is full to overflowing with work, and her school (this is the last year before graduation) and when the inevitable happens (Alec kisses Camille at a party and it is photographed by one of Becca's friends), everythings falls into chaos for Becca and also for Camille. 

Becca of course is heartbroken, Camille confused and embarrassed.  Alec seems like a nice guy who makes up haiku off the cuff and is very intense which is appealing to both girls.  Really, what he did with Camille was just an impulse, she's a really nice and clever girl who gets his haiku...

"you seem you could use
  a little kind of surprise
  maybe some haiku?"

 Becca's free verse, with the occasional apology to other poets (she borrows from various poets and substitutes her own words) is amazing.  I love how the verse is chaotic and a little choppy, showing how deeply she feels, how hurt she is, but also how creative her personality is. 

I loved this book, all of the different types of verse was just brilliant.  I loved the two girls, each amazing in their own ways.  I especially love how they both dealt with the same situation (Alec).
Phew! Just 99 more books to go!

The Poet Slave of Cuba

Margarita Engle was named The Poetry Foundation's Young Peoples' Poet Laureate this year and as I am already familiar with her poetry (The Surrender Tree:Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom 2008) and I really liked it, I decided to have a look at her other work.

There is something about a verse novel that is poignant and unforgettable.  I have noted in the past how easy it is to read such novels which are usually about subjects that are really intense, and stressful.  The one's I have read are not about good things.  Which is, I guess, the reason why this verse format is perfect for such material.  They are; easy to read, brief and powerful in a way that prose would be exhausting, and pack a one-two punch that hits the mark, effectively and indelibly.
I love this format and have an immense sense of satisfaction when I can get kids to read some at my work.  I am convinced that I can thwart the causes of mid-school-grade disinterest in chapter books with a couple of good verse novels...

I was very fortunate to find the audio book of The Poet Slave of Cuba at the BC Libraries Cooperative.  This version has a cast of characters (the voice talents of Yesenia Cabrero, Chris Nunez, Ozzie Rodriguez and Robert Santana) and I found the narration to be heartbreaking, emotional and chilling.  I have, since listening to it, ordered the book because I want to see the illustrations and to read the excerpts of Juan Francisco Manzano's poetry at the end.   Both Engel and Manzano are poets to take a closer look at.

Witness

Another brilliant verse novel from author Karen Hesse (Out of the Dust was my introduction to Hesse, and it is one of my favourite historical fiction novels which also won the Newbery Medal as well as the Scott O'Dell Award).  As I have been reading a lot of Newbery award books this past school year, I have come to appreciate even more the historical novel (which is what happens, I suppose, when you only read award/honor winners... they are the cream of the crop!).  

This is not one of them.  I chose it because April and National Poetry Month are looming, so I grabbed a pile of poetry books from the local library's children's section, and Witness was just picked up on a whim (I'm always on the lookout for more books to add to the perpetually growing wish list for the school library).  

The layout of Witness is like a play.  You have your dramatis personae:-

The sepia photographs loan this book a verisimilitude that makes an unforgettable impression (of course the subject material does that too).  The novel is about the introduction of the Ku Klux Klan into a small town set in 1924 Vermont.  There are five acts.  Each character has a unique point of view to relate, the verse giving each perspective an emotional flavor which just adds oomph to an otherwise well covered tale (there are so many of these kinds of stories, real and imagined!)  I love how D.W. Griffiths' black and white movie The Birth of a Nation is thought of by the sheriff Percelle Johnston as a bad influence  (having slogged through the 133 minutes of this incredibly long and somewhat painful movie I can see how it would affect people... the Ku Klux Klan was remarkably romanticized to look like the good guys).  

The verse novel has become increasingly interesting to me over the years, it is a type of story telling that is very new, and old all at the same time.  I have seen students become interested in this format, when chapter books have put them off.  I really loved this book, it brought to mind the Shakespearean drama of which I am a huge fan, and a deeper appreciation of what verse can really do for a story.  Makes me hungry for more!  I'm ready for National Poetry Month...are you?