In honor of Poetry Month, Kathy Erskine decided to feature a “Verse-Novel-a-Day” on her Facebook page. She has graciously allowed us to use those to put together a blog post–and the result is a pretty excellent survey of this powerful art form.

Libertad By Alma Fullerton Alma’s my co-faculty at the Novels in Verse workshop!	The Crossover By Kwame Alexander Also check out Booked!
Brown Girl Dreaming By Jacqueline Woodson There’s a reason it has all those stickers on the cover — a LOT of reasons.	Silver People: Voices From the Panama Canal By Margarita Engle Having just visited the Panama Canal, this really enlightened and touched me.
Audacity By Melanie Crowder Thinking of the beautiful audacity of Loree Griffin Burns who refused to let me be stranded at Logan airport last night and coordinated a grand rescue plan despite the snowstorm…	Love That Dog By Sharon Creech If you have a 9 year old who thinks he doesn’t like to read–or can’t read– give this to him and watch him mark up the pages (in a good way) with his thoughts.
A Time to Dance By Padma Venkatraman Padma’s our special guest at the Novels in Verse workshop!	Words With Wings By Nikki Grimes I LOVE that it has Mr. (Ed) Spicer in it.
Serafina’s Promise By Ann E. Burg I often use this in talks to show how we authors pile problem after problem on our characters’ shoulders.	Coaltown Jesus By Ron Koertge Hilarious and poignant.
Dust of Eden By Mariko Nagai Powerful Japanese internment camp story.	What My Mother Doesn’t Know By Sonya Sones A classic and I love the updated cover!
The Red Pencil By Andrea Davis Pinkney How art and creativity can transcend even the most horrifying events.	The Watch That Ends the Night By Allan Wolf Epic tale (thoroughly researched) of the Titanic, which sank 105 years ago.
How I Discovered Poetry By Marilyn Nelson This is one of those “how can so few words say so much?” novels.	Paper Hearts By Meg Wiviott So beautifully done I didn’t want it to end. You know that feeling? Yup, that.
Death Coming Up the Hill By Chris Crowe It HAD to be the choice for the 17th — read the novel and you’ll understand why.	Caminar By Skila Brown A way to see a different country and a different life (makes things like rush hour traffic or the wrong kind of toilet paper seem suddenly as unimportant as they are).
Sold By Patricia McCormick I always use her books as examples of the extraordinary research it takes to create an authentic story.	Becoming Billie Holiday By Carole Weatherford The poignant and beautiful story of Eleanora.
Inside Out and Back Again By Thanhha Lai With immigration an issue again–or still– this is a particularly beautiful story.	May B. By Caroline Starr Rose Great, fast, survival story for any young reader, especially reluctant ones.
Etched in Clay By Andrea Cheng Dave the Potter for the older crowd; beautiful.	Witness By Karen Hesse I love the voices — great example of how to make distinct characters even in a brief verse novel.
House Arrest By K.A. Holt Wow. Really powerful, poignant and funny. And great voice.	October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard By Leslea Newman Oh, so painful and hard to read but so necessary.
Full Cicada Moon By Marilyn Hilton This was named a Jane Addams Peace Award Honor Book!	CrashBoomLove By Juan Felipe Herrera The words are almost spat out in frustration. In the end, even a tough teen needs his mom.
Under the Mesquite By Guadalupe Garcia McCall Beautifully written and the ultimate strong girl book!	The One and Only Ivan By Katherine Applegate For animal lovers of all ages.