RIYL Poetry

Stories told in poetry format

Middle School

A Lion's Hunger: Poems of First Love by Ann Warren Turner

All He Knew by Helen Frost

All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg

Amiri & Odette by Walter Dean Myers

Booked by Kwame Alexander

Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Carver, A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

Escaping Tornado Season: A Story in Poems by Julie Williams

Frenchtown Summer by Robert Cormier

Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech

Heartbeat by Sharon Creech

House Arrest by K. A. Holt

I heart you, you haunt me by Lisa Schroeder

Inside out & back again by Thanhhai Lai

Jazmin's Notebook by Nikki Grimes

Jump Ball: A Basketball Season in Poems by Mel Glenn

Land of the Cranes by Aida Salazar

Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Loose Threads by Lorie Ann Grover

Love, Love by Victoria Chang

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff

The Moon Within by Aida Salazar

One of those hideous books where the mother dies by Sonya Sones

Out of the dust by Karen Heese

Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer 

Reckless, Glorious Girl by Ellen Hagan

Rebound by Kwame Alexander

The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney

Rez Dogs by Joseph Bruchac

Ronit & Jamil by Pamela L. Laskin

Running Back to Ludie by Angela Johnson

Sister Slam and the Poetic Motormouth Roadtrip by Linda Oatman High

Sold by Patricia McCormick

Solo by Kwame Alexander

Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell

Spinning Through the Universe:  A Novel of Poems by Room 201 by Helen Frost

Split Image by Mel Glenn

Starfish by Lisa Fipps

Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy by Sonya Sones

Street Love by Walter Dean Myers

The Taking of Room 114: A Hostage Drama in Poems by Mel Glenn

The Trial by Jennifer Bryant

They Call Me Güero:  A Border Kid’s Poems by David Bowles

Under the Broken Sky Mariko Nagai

Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

What About Will by Ellen Hopkins

What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones

What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones

Witness by Karen Heese

Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy

Zorgamazoo by Robert Paul Weston

High School

42 Miles by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer

A Bad Boy Can Be Good For a Girl by Tanya Lee Stone

After the Death of Anna Gonzales by Terri Fields

"After The Kiss" by Terra Elan McVoy

Aleutian Sparrow by Karen Hesse

All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg

Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart by Williams, Vera B

The Apprentice’s Masterpiece: A Story of Medieval Spain by Melanie Little

Audition by Stasia Ward

Beanball by Gene Fahler

Because I am furniture  by Chaltas, Thalia.

Becoming Billie Holiday by Carole Boston Weatherford

Becoming Joe Dimaggio by Maria Testa

Beowulf by Hinds, Gareth.

The best and hardest thing by Brisson, Pat.

The Braid by  Helen Frost

The Brimstone Journals by Ron Koertge

Brushing Mom's Hair by Andrea Cheng

Burned by Ellen Hopkins

CrashBoomLove: A Novel in Verse by Juan Felipe Herrera

Crazy Man by Pamela Porter

Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Schroeder

Cold Skin by Steven Herrick

Crossing Stones by Helen Frost

Dark Sons by Nikki Grimes

The Death of Jayson Porter by Jaime Adoff

EDDIE'S WAR by Carol Saller

Far from you by Lisa Schroeder

Fishtailing by Wendy Phillips

Foreign Exchange, A Mystery in Poems by Mel Glenn

Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem by Marilyn Nelson

The Geography of Girlhood by Kirstin Smith

A girl named Mister by Grimes, Nikki.

Girl Coming in for a Landing: a novel in poems by April Halprin Wayland

Glass by Ellen Hopkins

Glimpse by Carol Lynch Williams

God Went to Beauty School by Cynthia Rylant

Hawk, I'm your brother by Byrd Baylor

Heaven Looks A Lot Like The Mall by Wendy Mass

The House that Crack Built by Clark Taylor

Hugging the Rock by Susan Taylor Brown

Identical by Ellen Hopkins

I Don't Want to Be Crazy by Samantha Schutz

Jinx by Margaret Wild

Karma : a novel in verse by Ostlere, Cathy.

Kaleidoscope Eyes by Jen Bryant

Keesha's House by Helen Frost

Learning to Swim: A Memoir by Ann Turner

Love and Leftovers by Sarah Tregay

My Friend's Got This Problem, Mr. Candler by Mel Glenn

Nothing by Friedman, Robin.

North of Everything by Craig Crist-Evans

On Pointe by Lorie Ann Grover

One Night by Margaret Wild

Orchards by Holly Thompson

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer

The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan

The Red Pencil by Shane W. Evans

Ringside 1925 (Scope's trial) by Jen Bryant

Shakespeare Bats Cleanup by Ron Koertge

Shark girl by Kelly Bingham

Sister Slam and the Poetic Motormouth Road Trip by Linda Oatman High

Soda Jerk by Cynthia Rylant

Soul Moon Soup by Lindsay Lee Johnson

Splintering by Eireann Corrigan

Stardust 'Otel by Paul Janeczo

The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle

T4: a novel in verse by Ann Clare LeZott

Things Left Unsaid: A Novel in Poems by Stephanie Hemphill

Trash by Sharron Darrow

The Trial (Lindburgh kidnapper) by Jen Bryant

Tropical Secrets by Margarita Engle

True Believer by Virginia Euwer Wolff

The Voyage of the Arctic Tern by Hugh Montgomery

Walking on glass by alma fullerton

The Way a Door Closes by Hope Anita Smith illustrated by Shane W. Evans

The Weight of the Sky by Lisa Ann Sandell

What is Goodbye by Nikki Grimes

Who Killed Mr. Chippendale? A Mystery in Poems by Mel Glenn

Wicked Girls by Hemphill

The Wolf by Steven Herrick

Worlds Afire by Paul Janeczko

You Remind Me of You by Eireann Corrigan

Your own, Sylvia : a verse portrait of Sylvia Plath / by Stephanie Hemphill

Death of Jayson Porter by Jaime Adoff

The geography of girlhood by Smith, Kirsten.

God Went to Beauty School by Cynthia Rylant

Grow by Juanita Havill

Hard Hit by Turner, Ann

Heaven looks a lot like the mall by Wendy Mass

Hidden by Frost, Helen.

Home of the brave by Katherine Applegate

Hugging the rock by Susan Taylor Brown

I’ll be watching by Pamela Porter

Jump ball: A basketball season in poems by Mel Glenn

"Naked bunyip dancing," "Love ghosts and facial hair," "A place like this," and "Cold skin" by Steven Herrick

Nothing by Robin Friedman

One night by Margaret Wild

On pointe by Lorie Ann Grover

One of those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones

"Planet pregnancy" by Linda Oatman High

Ringside 1925, views from the Scopes trial by Jen Bryant

Rubber houses by Ellen Yeomans

Seeing Emily by Joyce Lee Wong

Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs by Ronald Koertge

Shanghai messenger by Andrea Cheng

Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow

Song of the sparrow by Sandell, Lisa A.

Spinning through the universe by Helen Frost

T4 by Anne Clare Lazotte

Things left unsaid by Stephanie Hemphill

This full house by Virginia Euwer Wolff

Trash.by Darrow, Sharon.

Under the Weight of the Sky by Lisa Ann Sadnell

Vampire Haiku by Ryan Mecum

Walking on glass  by Fullerton, Alma.

What is Goodbye? by Nikki Grimes

Where I live by Eileen Spinelli

Who Killed Mr. chippendale?: A Mystery in Poems by Mel Glenn

The Wolf by Steven Herrick

You are Not Here by Samantha Schutz

Zane's Trace by Allan Wolf

Zombie Haiku by Ryan Mecum

Biography in Verse

Engle, Margarita. The Poet-Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano

Engle,Margarita Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba

Nelson, Marilyn. Carver: A Life in Poems

Nelson, Marilyn. Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission Requiem

Smith Jr., Charles R. Twelve Rounds to Glory: the Story of Muhammad Ali

Weatherford, Carole Boston. Becoming Billie Holiday

Frida : viva la vida = long live life by Carmen T Bernier-Grand

José by Georgina Lázaro León; María Sánchez

The poet slave of Cuba : a biography of Juan Francisco Manzano by Margarita Engle; Sean Qualls

Our Abe Lincoln : an old tune with new lyrics by Jim Aylesworth; Barbara McClintock

Stephanie Hemphill. Your own, Sylvia : a verse portrait of Sylvia Plath.

• Brown, Paul Wolf Pack of the Winisk River

• Brown, Susan Taylor Hugging the Rock

• Bryant, Jen Pieces of Georgia

• Bryant, Jen The Trial

• Bryant, Jen Kaleidoscope Eyes

• Carvell, Marlene Who Will Tell My Brother?

• Cheng, Andrea Brushing Mom's Hair

• Cheng, Andrea Shanghai Messenger

• Crilley, Mark Winter Crist-

• Evans,Craig North of everything

• Ellis, Ann Dee Everything Is Fine

• Fields, Terri After the death of Anna Gonzales

• Frost, Helen Keesha's house

• Frost, Helen Spinning through the universe : a novel in poems from room 214

• Frost, Helen Crossing Stones

• Frost, Helen Diamond Willow

• Fullerton, Alma Libertad

• Grover, Lorie Ann Loose Threads

• Grover, Lorie Ann On Pointe

• Havill, Juanita Grow: A Novel in Verse

• Hemphill, Stephanie Things Left Unsaid

• Hemphill, Stephanie Wicked Girls

• Herrick, Steven By the River

• Janeczko, Paul B Worlds afire

• Johnson, Lindsay Lee Soul Moon Soup

• Koertge, Ronald Shakespeare Bats Cleanup

• Koertge, Ronald Shakespeare makes the playoffs

• Lenhard, Elizabeth Mall of the Universe

• Lester, Julius A Day of Tears

• LeZotte, Ann Clare T4

• Na, An A Step From Heaven

• Nelson,Marilyn Fortunes’ Bones

• Neri, Greg Chess rumble

• Ortiz Cofer, Judith Call me Maria : a novel

• Porter, Pamela Paige Crazy Man

• Rocklin, Joanne For Your Eyes Only

• Russell, Ching Yeung Tofu Quilt

• Rylant, Cynthia Soda jerk

• Sandell, Lisa Ann Song of the Sparrow

• Smith, Hope Anita Keeping the Night Watch

• Smith, Hope Anita The Way A Door Closes

• Spinelli, Eileen The Dancing Pancake

• Testa, Maria Almost forever

Resources:

Teenspoint.org Reading Matters Novels in Verse Page

Elementary School

Never forgotten   McKissack, Pat.   2011

Booked    Alexander, Kwame.          2016

The crossover    Alexander, Kwame.          2014

Finding wonders : three girls who changed science    Atkins, Jeannine.               2016

Little Dog Lost by Bauer, Marion Dane  2012

Freedom over me : eleven slaves, their lives and dreams brought to life   Bryan, Ashley.     2016

Serafina's promise    Burg, Ann E.        2013

Unbound : a novel in verse    Burg, Ann E.        2016

Mountain dog     Engle, Margarita.               2013

Applesauce weather     Frost, Helen.

Macy McMillan and the rainbow goddess     Green, Shari.       2017

Garvey's choice    Grimes, Nikki.     2016

Words with wings    Grimes, Nikki      2013

Full cicada moon    Hilton, Marilyn.                  2015

Inside out & back again     Lai, Thanhha.      2011

Looking for me     Rosenthal, Betsy R.           2012

Red Butterfly by Sonnichsen, A. L  2015

Like Bug Juice on a Burger by Sternberg, Julie 2013

Like Carrot Juice on a Cupcake by Sternberg, Julie 2014

Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie by Sternberg, Julie 2013

Prince Puggly of Spud and the Kingdom of Spiff    Weston, Robert Paul.      2013

Zorgamazoo   Weston, Robert Paul.      2008

Gone camping : a novel in verse   Wissinger, Tamera Will.                  2017

Gone fishing : a novel in verse    Wissinger, Tamera Will.                  2013

TeachingBooks.net Elementary list compiled by Deborah Ford

See Also: 

• Bio Poem

• Blackout Poetry

• Censored Poetry

• Ephrastic Poem

• Figurative Language

• Found Poem

• I Am Poem

• I Know Poem

• Poetry Middle School Lesson

• Poetry Museum

• Poem in my Pocket

“Novels In Verse: a pseudo-rondeau” by Karl G. Siewert posted to YALSABK

Novels in verse fulfill a need

For those who prefer a faster read.

A tale in prose can be a bore.

You read and read 'til your eyes are sore.

The poetic book gives you speed.

After you plod through a lengthy screed --

With words choking out, like a garden weed

The sense of the thing -- you need more

Novels in verse.

Novels are great, it must be agreed.

To write one's a difficult feat indeed.

But telling a story's a trickier chore

When rhythm and rhyme have been called for.

They're such beautiful things, when good writers succeed.