Poetry for Teens
For National Poetry Month, here are fifteen books of teen-centered poetry, all as novels in verse. (Created March 2023)
-
The Door of No Return
Kofi's peaceful life in Upper Kwanta is changed forever when his older brother wrestles - and accidentally kills - a boy from Lower Kwanta. As the two villages come into conflict, Kofi is kidnapped and taken far, far from home. First in a planned trilogy.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View The Door of No Return -
The Name She Gave Me
Rynn was given the name Scheherezade by her birth mother, and although she is two years shy of being old enough to find her birth family legally, her unusual name gives her what she needs to begin her search.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View The Name She Gave Me -
The Bones of Me
Molly's desire to become an amateur boxer like her older brother is put on hold when he disappears after an assault the night before her first match.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View The Bones of Me -
Rima's Rebellion
In 1920s Cuba, Rima wants only to be accepted like her whiter, legitimate half-sisters are, but as rebellion threatens the peace, she finds she has more to fight for.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Rima's Rebellion -
Wave
Ava finds peace in music and surfing and her friendship with Phoenix, which helps to balance her mother's high expectations, so when her friend's cancer returns, she longs to spend every minute with her.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Wave -
Don't Call Me A Hurricane
Five years after a hurricane devastates their island community, Eliza and her friends still struggle to rebuild, so when an attractive developer comes to town, it is with mixed feelings that she shows him what she will do to save her island.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Don't Call Me A Hurricane -
Lawless Spaces
On her sixteenth birthday, social influencer Mimi's mother gives her a blank notebook and tells her to ask her ancestors what happened to all of them, and then disappears when she accuses a famous Hollywood director of sexual assault.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Lawless Spaces -
Baby Teeth
Immy has lived many lives as a vampire, but no one has stirred her heart the way Claudia has. And yet, she must feed.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Baby Teeth -
African Town
In 1860, importing enslaved people is against the law, but that only goads one ship's captain to wager he can bring one hundred more slaves to America. Here are their stories.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View African Town -
We Are All So Good at Smiling
In the hospital for clinical depression, Whimsy meets Faerry, a boy with magical qualities. When they learn they live near each other, they bond over the fact they are the only two Black kids in their neighborhood, and that leads them to confront the fear and sorrow they believe lives in the forest down the street.
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View We Are All So Good at Smiling