Three novels-in-verse perfect for 'tween' readers

Award-winning narratives that treat history, racism, and teen woes in free verse.

from the April 15, 2008 edition

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For example, as Jeannie searches for building materials in Canada and Sarah's chapter takes place "Around the rocks" in Mingulay, Frost connects the two with a poem called "Stones," in which she imagines the seeker who:

...somehow

finds the perfect stone, exactly

the right shape and size to fit each

space in a wall.…

The way each

word comes forth and finds its way

home.

Seeing Emily (Amulet Books, 268 pp., $6.95), for which the author, Joyce Lee Wong, received The 2007 Lee Bennett Hopkins/International Reading Association Promising New Poet Award, deals, not with history, but with a present-day teenager's struggles growing up within two cultures.

Emily Wu has always been a good Chinese daughter. She studies, works in her parents' restaurant, devotes herself to her painting. But being 16 isn't easy – even when you're not trying to figure out where you belong.

And though Emily is terrified of disappointing her parents, she also can't quite stop herself from experimenting with makeup – and a popular boyfriend.

Like Weatherford and Frost, Wong relies on the minutiae – on carefully chosen words, images, and metaphors – both to open new windows on the world and to pack an emotional wallop.

When Emily lies to her mother about something:

The lie sat uneasily in my stomach

like an extra piece of cake

I hadn't been able to resist eating

even though I was already full.

More frequently, Wong chooses emblematic aspects of Chinese culture to convey Emily's growing disconnect – and to expand the symbolic meaning of the way of life Emily can't quite bring herself to reject.

Which is to say that "Seeing Emily," like "Birmingham, 1963" and "The Braid," is a rich and expansive take on a traditional coming-of-age tale. And while there's plenty to savor in each of these award winners, it's this beauty that springs from spareness that's sure to leave a reader wanting more.

• Jenny Sawyer regularly reviews children's literature for the Monitor.

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