Hey our capacity for reading load varies as life gets busy or gives space. No judgement here.

This one is a great one to start with!

I don’t think I can narrow it to three favorites. But maybe two more recent stories to try if you haven’t read Verse Novel before:

Please Pay Attention by Jamie Summer

Kareem Between by Shifa Saltagi Safadi

I just love how deftly Meg weaves history and the present together and creates a space of compassion for every. single. character. It’s so good.

Middle Grade Verse Novel Stats 2026 It’s my favorite month. National Poetry Month! And of course, I have updated middle grade novel-in-verse statistics to share. In 2025, I included verse novel awards as part of my infographic.…

Under the infographic about this year's verse novels, I have a whole master list of middle grade verse novels going back to the 1990s!

It’s SO good!

These are just the ones published last year! I have a long list on my website! So many wonderful verse novels

I just chatted with my agent yesterday about latest revisions. The next portion of revision she requested is more form/surface level than the character arc improvements from the last!

The Girl in the Walls by Meg Eden Kuyatt. Recognized with: A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection A 2026 Pedro and Daniel Intersectionality Book Awards (PADIBA) Commended Title A Bram Stoker Award Nominee for Superior Achievement in a Middle Grade Novel An SLJ Most Anticipated Middle Grade Reads of 2025. Themes include: Neurodiversity Ghost Story Speculative Horror Haunted House Family Secrets Art.

Middle Grade Novel-in-Verse 2025 Titles include: 13 Ways to Say Goodbye A Sea of Lemon Trees Aarzu All Around (Aarzu Raza Extra No More!) Its All or Nothing, Vale All the Blues in the Sky Away Glitch Girl Green Promises Hannah Backwards If Elephants Could Talk Kimmy Carson is Not Scared Lilac and the Switch Back (Lilac Lost and Found) Little Bones Little Bones Neshama Octopus Moon (formerly Mermaids and Other Signs of Life) Oh Give me a Home Please Pay Attention Radiant Safe Harbor Spark The Burning Season (Formerly: Fire Finder) The Extraordinary Orbit of Alex Ramirez The First Year The Girl in the Wall The House at the Edge of the World The Oasis The Only Branch on the Family Tree The Poetry of Car Mechanics The Midas Trees The Song of Orphan's Garden The Trouble with Heroes Trapped: The Entombed Miner of Bonnie Vale Zarina Divided

📚👍
#PoetryMonth Day 21
The Girl in the Walls by @medenkuyatt.bsky.social

I absolutely love this story. A neurodiverse girl, sent to stay with her grandmother over the summer, faces generational trauma literally haunting the home.

#KidLit #Horror #GhostStory #MG

Guided Writing Session Auction item 'Guided Writing Session' hosted online at 32auctions.

Laura Shovan has a great option available for the Neurodiverse KidLit Collective Auction!

Meet the Glowing 'Worms' of the American South There is a lot to learn about Orfelia fultoni, the only bioluminescent fly in North America, but its larvae put on a show.

I’ve heard firefly and lightning bug. My experience is in the south and Midwest of the US.

I’d considered glow works these:

www.atlasobscura.com/articles/glo...

I don’t write horror but @abbyvail.bsky.social does! She’d be great to include!

Hmmm. Spring autocorrected to “belting.” That’s such a weird autocorrect!

Pink peonies and yellow poppies

Pink peonies and yellow poppies

Enjoying the belting blossoms

The First Year by Matt Goodfellow. Recognized with: BASH Book Award 2026 Carnegies medal for writing 2026 Nominee Waterstones paperbacks of the year Bookshop.org Children’s Book of the Month UKLA Book Awards Shortlist. Themes: School Family Friendship Mental Health

Middle Grade Novels in Verse 2025

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#PoetryMonth
The First Year by @mattgoodfellow.bsky.social

"...A sudden surprise appearance in Nate's life threatens to throw him completely off course. And The Beast - the anger he tries so hard to control - reappears. Will Nate find a way to keep himself and his family together?"
#VerseNovel

The Extraordinary Orbit of Alex Ramirez by Jasminne Paulino. Recognized with: ★ Booklist ★ School Library Journal, A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year An ALA/ALSC Notable Children’s Book A Lone Star Reading List Selection A Georgia Children’s Book Award Finalist A USSBY List of Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities Selection. Themes include: Neurodiversity School Self-contained Classroom STEAM Space Bullying Hispanic/Latino Dominican-American

Middle Grade Novels in Verse 2025

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#PoetryMonth Day 19
The Extraordinary Orbit of Alex Ramirez by Jasminne Paulino
"...A neurodivergent seventh grader...dreams of traveling to the stars one day...When his teacher says "not yet" for the millionth time, Alex [is] ready to try show he is capable of the extraordinary."
#KidLit

A colorful illustration of the front of a library with a librarian at the door waving to members of the community outside. A banner over the library reads "FIND YOUR JOY!" Logos for American Library Association and Library Champions in top right. Text below the illustration reads "Celebrate NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK, April 19-25, 2026"

It's #NationalLibraryWeek! Take time to discover what brings you joy at your library: browse the shelves, join a book club, attend a program, or get started on your next creative project in a makerspace.

Be sure to visit your library or ilovelibraries.org and celebrate your library all week long!

🙌🏻

Spark by Chris Baron. Recognized with: ★ Booklist ★ School Library Journal ★ Shelf Awareness, A LONE STAR READING LIST Selection A Southern California Independent Booksellers Alliance BESTSELLER! Finalist, Golden Poppy Award, California Independent Booksellers Association A School Library Journal Most Anticipated Middle Grade Book of the Year A Junior Library Guild Selection. Themes include: Disaster Survival Recovery STEAM Family Mental Health: PTSD

Middle Grade Verse Novels 2025

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#PoetryMonth Day 18
Spark by @baronchrisbaron.bsky.social

"For any young person who's ever felt powerless against the world, here are two kids doing all they can to understand their natural world and preserve it."

#KidLit #VerseNovel

Safe Harbor by Padma Venkatraman. Recognized with: ★ School Library Journal, Children’s Book Council’s Hot Off the Press list. Themes include: Marine Biology Animal rehabilitation Finding Home Moving Friendship Divorce Music Enviromental Advocacy STEM

Middle Grade Novel-in-verse 2025 titles include: 13 Ways to Say Goodbye A Sea of Lemon Trees Aarzu All Around (Aarzu Raza Extra No More!) Its All or Nothing, Vale All the Blues in the Sky Away Glitch Girl Green Promises Hannah Backwards If Elephants Could Talk Kimmy Carson is Not Scared Lilac and the Switch Back (Lilac Lost and Found) Little Bones Little Bones Neshama Octopus Moon (formerly Mermaids and Other Signs of Life) Oh Give me a Home Please Pay Attention Radiant Safe Harbor Spark The Burning Season (Formerly: Fire Finder) The Extraordinary Orbit of Alex Ramirez The First Year The Girl in the Wall The House at the Edge of the World The Oasis The Only Branch on the Family Tree The Poetry of Car Mechanics The Midas Trees The Song of Orphan's Garden The Trouble with Heroes Trapped: The Entombed Miner of Bonnie Vale Zarina Divided

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#PoetryMonth Day 17
Safe Harbor by @padmatv.bsky.social

As a girl navigates her parent's divorce, an international move, and finding safety and home, her emotionally journey becomes entwined with a seal pup she helps to safety at an animal rehabilitation center.

#VerseNovel #Poetry #KidLit

I mean, I've included links to panels I've been part of, the Kid Lit Six episode I'm in, an NPR interview of @markbuller.bsky.social including performance of the poem he set as an art song. Part of me thinks it breaks up blocks of text in a way I like. But another part wonders if it's too chaotic.

News Upcoming/Recent Poetry Publications Upcoming: NewMyths: “As Mother Reads the Highwayman” [Winter 2026] Upcoming: Rattle: “Corn Maze” [Issue #92 June 1, 2026] Upcoming: Conne…

Looking for feedback on this page of my website.

I just updated poems published/writing/poetry events page to add two of my recent Rattlecast curated prompt lines poems read live.

But with 84 published poems... is it unwieldy? Should I rework to group poems differently?
#Poet #WritingCommunity

Radiant by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson. Recognized with: ★ School Library Journal, Black Authors Matter Children’s Book Award, Social Commentary/Justice Category 2025 | Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, 2026 Chapter Book Finalist | Junior Library Guild Selection 2025 | New Mexico Book Award, Juvenile category 2025 Notable Book for a Global Society 2026 | Notable Children’s Book (Association for Library Service to Children) 2026 | Notable Verse Novel (National Council of Teachers of English) 2026 | Oklahoma Library Association Children’s Sequoyah Book Award nominee 2027 | Paul Rhetts Award (Best in Show), New Mexico Book Award, 2025 | Redeemed Reader Book of the Year Honor, Middle Grade Fiction 2026 | School Library Journal Best Books of the Year 2025. Themes include: Historical Black History Civil Rights School Bullying Beatlemania

Middle Grade novel-in-verse 2025 titles include: 13 Ways to Say Goodbye A Sea of Lemon Trees Aarzu All Around (Aarzu Raza Extra No More!) Its All or Nothing, Vale All the Blues in the Sky Away Glitch Girl Green Promises Hannah Backwards If Elephants Could Talk Kimmy Carson is Not Scared Lilac and the Switch Back (Lilac Lost and Found) Little Bones Little Bones Neshama Octopus Moon (formerly Mermaids and Other Signs of Life) Oh Give me a Home Please Pay Attention Radiant Safe Harbor Spark The Burning Season (Formerly: Fire Finder) The Extraordinary Orbit of Alex Ramirez The First Year The Girl in the Wall The House at the Edge of the World The Oasis The Only Branch on the Family Tree The Poetry of Car Mechanics The Midas Trees The Song of Orphan's Garden The Trouble with Heroes Trapped: The Entombed Miner of Bonnie Vale Zarina Divided

📚👍 #PoetryMonth Day 16

Cooper wrestles with what “shine” means for a black girl in a 1963 predominantly white community as the Birmingham church bombing, Kennedy's assassination, and Beatlemania sweep the world. She learns of race, class, faith, and finding your place in a loving family.

#kidLit

This was one of my favorite verse novels of 2025. I think I read it within 2 days.

Please Pay Attention by Jamie Sumner. Recognized with ★ BookPage ★ School Library Journal ★ Publisher’s Weekly, ALA Notable Children's Books ILA Notable Books for a Global Society NY Public Library Best Books of 2025 SLJ Best Books of 2025 Themes include: School Gun Violence Disability PTSD

Middle grade novel-in-verse 2025 titles include: 13 Ways to Say Goodbye A Sea of Lemon Trees Aarzu All Around (Aarzu Raza Extra No More!) Its All or Nothing, Vale All the Blues in the Sky Away Glitch Girl Green Promises Hannah Backwards If Elephants Could Talk Kimmy Carson is Not Scared Lilac and the Switch Back (Lilac Lost and Found) Little Bones Little Bones Neshama Octopus Moon (formerly Mermaids and Other Signs of Life) Oh Give me a Home Please Pay Attention Radiant Safe Harbor Spark The Burning Season (Formerly: Fire Finder) The Extraordinary Orbit of Alex Ramirez The First Year The Girl in the Wall The House at the Edge of the World The Oasis The Only Branch on the Family Tree The Poetry of Car Mechanics The Midas Trees The Song of Orphan's Garden The Trouble with Heroes Trapped: The Entombed Miner of Bonnie Vale Zarina Divided

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#PoetryMonth Day 15
Please Pay Attention by Jaimie Sumner
"A girl with cerebral palsy navigates loss, grief, and the aftermath of trauma following a school shooting in a world that wasn’t built for her"
#KidLit #VerseNovel #Resilience

It's been a mixed bag of highlights, and sharp shadows. But I'm thankful for my newly 6yo. And it seems like much of today she enjoyed.

It’s barely 9am and boy has it been a day already. Youngest child’s birthday. She woke up and lost a tooth filling. Her sister’s birthday is later this week. So I started baking cupcakes. Mid-recipe, there’s a puddle across the floor. The dishwasher is leaking.

I’ve heard some editors asking for things like this though. Because the space helps the kids feel even more confident in their reading. I will hope that’s the direction things go for you!

#KidLitChat For reference, here's this year's annual middle grade verse novel stats and upcoming titles infographic:

Middle Grade Is "Dead" And I Think That's Good News I say this at conferences a lot.

#KidLitChat Speaking of the pulse on publishing, what did folks here think of this article. Have you read it? Did you have strong thoughts one way or the other?

Yes, @middlegradehub.bsky.social has done a lot of good things for me and my writing. 💜
#KidLitChat

#KidLitChat Gardening is self-care that connects for me. I'm very excited that all the dahlia tubers have green sprouts appearing now, too.