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(2)
YA
In a series of free-verse poems full of adolescent yearning, youthful naiveté, and pubescent insecurity, fourteen-year-old Lily chronicles her infatuation with twenty-nine-year-old friend of the family Luke. She also chronicles Luke's infatuation with her, and how he manipulates her, grooms her, and exploits her. An author's note with a list of resources make this valuable for those wrestling with sexual and emotional abuse.
Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
November, 2018
440 pp.
| HarperTeen
| October, 2016
|
TradeISBN 978-0-06-237028-0$17.99
(3)
YA
Anxiety-prone fourteen-year-old Molly befriends homeless teen Red while fulfilling her community service requirement in this affecting and accessible verse novel. Molly, who harbors her own guilty secret about her missing older brother, is determined to return Red to her family. Difficult but sensitively handled issues including mental illness and PTSD are lightened by an unfolding romance and a hopeful ending.
480 pp.
| Simon
| August, 2013
|
TradeISBN 978-0-689-87604-2$17.99
(4)
YA
"I'm what / your English teacher / calls an 'unreliable narrator.'" Through first-person free-verse poems, fifteen-year-old Colette explains her pathology then relates a summer away on location with her movie-star mom and little brother during which she falls for a guy and discovers the hazards of chronic lying. Some character relationships feel murky, but the pithy, swift-moving verse packs a punch.
32 pp.
| Dial
| March, 2009
|
TradeISBN 978-0-8037-3234-6$16.99
(2)
K-3
Illustrated by
Chris Raschka.
Violet the swan and Winston the duck are old friends with much in common. They both enjoy café society and picnics in the country, but they encounter some sticky patches in their friendship in this trio of stories. Raschka's jazzy visual rhythms, fauvist palette, and background details lend verve and originality to the classic themes of the trials and satisfactions of friendship.
Reviewer: Sarah Ellis
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
March, 2009
293 pp.
| Simon
| June, 2007
|
TradeISBN 978-0-689-87602-8$16.99
(4)
YA
In What My Mother Doesn't Know, pretty, popular Sophie risked her social status to date Robin. Now Robin relates (in verse) the aftermath of their decision to go public. The teens' relationship is believably flawed, due in part to Robin's burgeoning self-confidence, though Robin's previous too-good-to-be-true boyfriend behavior makes his dalliance with another girl that much more difficult to believe.
261 pp.
| Simon
| October, 2001
|
TradeISBN 0-689-84114-0$$17.00
(4)
YA
This novel chronicles the life and loves of eighth-grader Sophie in first-person free-verse poems. Sones tries a little too hard to be hip and her style is sometimes contrived, but overall the voice is fresh and honest, often transcending cool to realistically portray adolescent vulnerability.
(3)
4-6
When her older sister becomes mentally ill, an adolescent girl describes her own tumultuous feelings in a series of free verse poems. The simple verses are occasionally glib, but more often sensitively written, gathering cumulative power as they trace Cookie's feelings of loss, despair, and loneliness as Sister is institutionalized, undergoes shock therapy, and ultimately makes small steps toward recovery.