Let's Hear It For Verse Novels

I am a huge fan of Verse novels and have curated a significant collection across the years-check out the attached image. It continues to astound me how many kids and teachers have little or no idea regarding this form of writing.

A novel in verse is a full-length story told through poetry instead of prose, blending narrative structure with lyrical language, often using free verse, multiple voices, and white space to explore deep emotions, complex themes (like identity, grief, racism), and detailed plots in a concise, impactful way, making such books very popular for YA and readers with low confidence.

Australia has a wonderful track record with this genre. Sally Morgan, Steven Herrick, Kat Appel, Kirli Saunders and Sharon Kernot immediately come to mind as great contributors and champions of the verse novel. American authors like Kwame Alexander, Jacqueline Woodson and KA Holt are fine exponents of the genre and the UK's Steven Camden is a favourite of mine too.

Add an extra dimension to the reading program in your classroom in 2026 by highlighting these fabulous books. I guarrantee you will round up more keen readers.

#versenovel #StevenHerrick #sallymorgan #kwamealexander #stevencamden #kaholt #katappel #kirlisaunders #sharonkernot

Alan j Wright

https://www.alanjwrightauthorpoet.com/

Comments

Poetry Inspired by Images and Objects

There are many ways pictures and photographs can be conscripted to support the writing of poetry. Allow me to share a few ideas with you: Old photographs are a great source of inspiration. Cynthia Rylant explored this idea with great success in her book 'Something Permanent' where she employed the Depression era photographs of Walker Evans to add a new voice to the starkness to the lives of people experienced under extreme circumstances. I have used this strategy to spark many individual poems. In ' I Bet There's No Broccoli On The Moon,' I used a photo I had taken in 2004 while living in New York to inspire a poem. The poem was based on a story related by a friend who grew up in New York. I regularly combined poetry and pictures in my writer's notebook, drawing on inspiration from the photograph and my personal memories. We can also utilize existing cartoons and illustrations to create ekphrastic poems. I frequently use the illustrations of Jim Pavlidis to co...

Powerful Poetry, 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston

This week, Poetry Friday is hosted by Janice Scully @ Salt City Verse where Janice shares some original words and offers us a taste of Thomas Carlyle to ponder. I encourage you to join a host of poets from all around the globe and visit Janice's page... Almost two years to the day, I wrote a post featuring the poem 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston. The poem was included in Brian's first book of poetry, 'You Took The Last Bus Home.' A very powerful Reverso poem and technically brilliant. A Reverso poem can be read from top to bottom or bottom to top. It will often express opposite opinions depending on which way you read it. Such poems really make us think. A Reverso poem is like a picture turned upside down, a frowning face upended to reveal a smiling one. The poem read in reverse, contradicts itself with an opposing message. In 'Refugee' Brian Bilston focuses on a societal issue that tends to polarize feelings and the opposing views are clearly in eviden...

Opposite Poems

O pp o s ite P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,' Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. N...

Search This Blog