Contributed by Eva the Librarian
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The verse-novel is a modern phenomenon—very modern. Although there are a few earlier examples, this type of literature first reared its genre-blending head in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The vast majority were published after the year 2000, and most are marketed to teenage audiences.

Verse-novels are characterized by the combining of narrative and poetry, but other than that it is a very diverse genre. They are historical (Out of the Dust) and contemporary (Make Lemonade). They can have one narrator (What My Mother Doesn’t Know) or several (Keesha’s House). They are about sports (Jump Ball: A Basketball Season in Poems), drug addiction (Crank), family tragedy (Walking on Glass), mental illness (Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy), racial conflict (Witness), and a variety of other themes.

Verse novels are a source of debate in many areas of library science. First of all, how to catalog them? Should they be classified as poetry, as fiction, or in a completely new genre altogether? Don’t look to the Library of Congress for help; even they are a little baffled as to what to do with these new-fangled hybrids.

There is also some discussion in the literary community about whether or not verse-novels are any good (the critics’ arguments sound suspiciously similar to those of the anti-graphic novel brigade). Personally, I am not a fan, but that is hardly the point. The point is that teens really go for them!

• The short, free-verse passages resemble song lyrics, which strikes a chord with the iPod generation.
• Interesting titles and bold, attractive cover art appeal to young audiences.
• Verse-novels focus more intently on raw emotion than do other novels, which appeals to emotion-exploring young adults.
• Verse-novels often deal with tough issues that teens themselves may be facing.

Verse-novels are also a less intimidating option for reluctant readers, because they typically have fewer pages and more white space than the average novel. These books can also serve to introduce the verse-adverse to the wonderful world of poetry. What better way to transition from A Separate Peace to The Raven than with something in between?

So, all personal feelings on the subject aside, verse-novels are an invaluable asset to libraries. The unique blend of poetry and fiction appeals to and young adults on many levels and simultaneously helps to develop their reading skills. Who can argue with that?

Booklists:

http://www.stdl.org/extlink/ysread/novels.htm

http://www.dover.lib.nh.us/teenpage/novelsverse.htm

http://www.haworth.org/yaversenovels.html

http://www.wiredforyouth.com/books/index.cfm?booklist=verse

http://www.epl.ca/EPLMaster.cfm?id=VERSENOVELSF0001

http://www.teenspoint.org/reading_matters/book_list.asp?sort=101&list=1468

http://www.adlit.org/books/c812/

http://www.carnegielibrary.org/teens/read/booklists/novelsinverse.html

Wiki:

Add Novels In Verse to the TeenLibWiki:
http://yalibrarian.com/yalib_wiki/index.php?title=Read_a_Novel…in_Verse

Websites:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PBX/is_5_36/ai_107202412

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verse_novel

http://www.lis.uzulu.ac.za/arts/addison.doc

http://wwwfp.education.tas.gov.au/English/verse.htm

Articles:

Alexander, Joy (2005). The verse-novel: a new genre. Children’s Literature in Education. 36(3), 269-283.

O’Neal, Amy (2004). Calling it verse doesn’t make it poetry. Young Adult Library Services, 2(2), 39-40.

Sullivan, Ed (2003). Fiction or poetry? School Library Journal, 49(8), 44-45.

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Post contributed by Eva the Librarian

Eva is a Youth Services Librarian (among other things) at a small public library in Pennsylvania. Eva says, “Times are hard for Teen Services, but I work harder!” Hobbies other than reading and writing include classic movies, knitting, house renovating, and collecting vintage children’s books.