For Everyone by Jason Reynolds

If you're looking for something uplifting, this might be the book. Reynolds wrote a letter to himself in the form of a poem. What's wonderful is that his words can have an impact on us all. Whether 14 or 40, the reader who picks up this book most likely has something in life that makes her wonder if she can achieve her dreams. A young reader, like most of Reynolds fans, might be overwhelmed by all the possibilities. An older reader might be trying to remember what the dream is.

Reynolds' voice sounds young and hopeful as he tells us all to listen to our own hopeful voices. He reminds us to let hope drown out the oppressive discontent that tries to knock us down. This might be one that has to live on my shelf for to be referenced on those wicked days.

Jazz Owls by Margarita Engle

A novel told in verse, this story bounces between multiple Los Angeles civilians during World War II who deal with shortages, soldiers, and working for the war.

Two teen girls who have dropped out of school work at the cannery during the day and dance with the soldiers in the evenings. Their younger brother acts as "chaperone" as he continues in school and seaches for his own place in the world. Their parents worry about all four of their children - the three here, plus an older son enlisted and deployed. Through their eyes, we learn about the real-life race riots between soldiers and Mexican-Americans.

It's a quick read - I read it in an evening. I'd heard good things about the book, which is why I picked it up, and I didn't realize it was poetry until it arrived. Each chapter is a different voice, and each is just a page or two. The changing viewpoints offer an interesting perspective on a complex subject - a true historical event that I didn't know about before. 

It would be a good youth discussion title. The kids in the story are younger than you'd think, dealing with very adult problems and concerns, due to the escalating tensions of wartime. And the racism they encounter would be an interesting comparison for modern discrimination.

Open Mic Night at Westminster Cemetery by Mary Amato

An illegal ash-burying brings a new, modern soul into a closed, historic cemetery - the famous Baltimore Hall and Burying Ground where Edgar Allan Poe's remains reside. Once Lacy adjusts to what's happened, she's determined to make the most of her afterlife.

This is a fun book intended for teens, but it has cross-over appeal. Lacy's a modern poetry-loving dramatic teen and her adjustment to the mostly Victorian-era spirit society adds to the fish-out-of-water story. There's an unusual "mean girl" twist to the story, and the main drama is in winning over and conquering the clique that is the ruling class of the cemetery.

The book is structured like a play, and I think it could actually almost be performed as such, with a few dramatic special effects. If you don't know much about Poe you'll learn it, but the more you know the more laughs you'll find. The Raven is a great silent narrator - the only character that can cross over to communicate with both the living to the dead.

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie

In a heart-wrenching memoir, Sherman Alexie explores his complicated relationship with his mother and his grief after her death. The book's narrative is expressed through a combination of essays, poetry, honor songs, and more.

There's a tradeoff, depending on your reading format: the physical book has pictures, and you get the visual formatting in the poetry. In the audiobook you miss out on those - but you get ALL the emotion as the author reads this work himself.

And I do mean ALL the emotion - there's a river of tears from Alexie in the audiobook, and I can only imagine how many they edited out. It's sometimes overwhelming, in the true, honest way he expresses the story of his life and of his family. It's so, so good, but it took me a while to get through this audiobook - it's not the kind of thing you want to listen to every day.

Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman

I love everything from Neil Gaiman, and I especially adore the audiobooks where he reads it himself. So pretty much, I loved this collection of poetry and short stories from 2006.

Many of these stories have links to other Gaiman works - one was an early idea for The Graveyard Book, and one that's part of the world of American Gods. Many have won awards. My favorite is a backwards, unwinding of the book of Genesis.

In an audiobook this collection of vignettes could be a bit confusing (I found it hard to hear the breaks between stories, sometimes - to know I was moving into a new world). Also, sometimes I have to review poetry more than once for it to more fully absorb. To solve these challenges, I also kept a paper copy of the book for reference and review.

An Evening with Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer

This audio compilation of short stories, songs, poetry and more from pop culture's favorite superstar couple was bundled from a series of events on tour in 2011.

I don't usually review "not-books" but this one's hard to classify (it's not in print, but it's more than an audiobook and not quite a music CD and is actually something all-together different) and I think it deserves a blog post.

This would be worth a listen just to hear Neil Gaiman read some of his own work. It's always a treat. But then to get some of Amanda Palmer's songs, and some banter between the two of them ... well, it's well worth the time.

Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father by Alysia Abbott

Steve Abbott gave his daughter an unusual life; he was a devoted and loving only parent, a struggling full-time poet and writer, and on the front line of the 1980s AIDS epidemic as an out gay man in San Francisco.

It's a good book, and Alysia's honest in a way many might have glossed over. She didn't always behave well - often demanding her father's full attention to the detriment of the rest of his life. But it's overall a loving look at a nontraditional life, and the kind of story we've not heard much; since the AIDS epidemic primarily claimed gay men, most of its history has been written about the community of friends that grew up around sick men and their partners. This is a look at a marginalized group that's just beginning to speak out: children and wives of AIDS victims.

All the water in the world

by George Ella Lyon

This picture book is a wondrous blend of realistic fiction, non-fiction and poetry.  The story actually begins on the title page and flows as a smooth river of language.  Many pages are filled with nonlinear text perfect for tracing with a finger.  What a magnificent way to showcase those shapes that make up letters and letters that make up words; Oh, the early literacy opportunities!  Every page gives a distinctly different view of water and its many uses. 
I've already told you how great this is for very young listeners, but older kids could love this, too.  It's filled with poetry, and dynamically varied illustrations.  More so, it realistically portrays the water cycle.  Poetry and non-fiction? Pop this story into a science lesson to balance out those Common Core State Standards. 

The Language Inside by Holly Thompson

Emma is white, and her parents are American - although she's lived in Japan since she was a baby and she has never been in the US longer than a visit. She feels 100% Japanese on the inside. So she's definitely in for a culture shock when the Karas family moves to grandma's in Massachusetts for awhile (months? a year?) while Emma's mother is in treatment for breast cancer.

This book is written in verse, and the story deals quite a bit with artistic expression: As Emma struggles with the fact her outside doesn't match her "filling", dance and poetry become outlets for her emotions. Volunteering at the nursing home she becomes friends with a stroke victim who communicates only through eye movement, several elderly Cambodian refugees, and many American kids of Cambodian ethnicity, who collectively help Emma realize she's not alone - that many people have internal lives that don't match their physical shell.

I enjoyed the book, and I think it would have been equally well served in prose form. Emma and her friends are relatable, intelligent teens with real-world concerns. The author does an excellent job with character and pacing, and I loved that the world's not tied up in a tidy bow at the end - while still giving readers a satisfying resolution.

Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole

A literary who-done-it that sweeps across two world wars, this novel in letter format encompasses both a transcontinental pen-pal relationship during the first World War and a young woman's journey of self-discovery during WWII.

We know right away these two stories are connected; early on it's clear that the end of the first war story is going to illuminate the beginning of the second - and the getting there is truly the good part.

These are wonderful letters, the kind we don't write any more: back then friendships and entire relationships were sustained on paper and moved only at the speed of postage. And Brockmole does an amazing job fleshing out these characters into completely realized people only through their correspondence.

Book clubs will love this one as much as they did the similarly structured The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. But it's not a simple knock-off; this book stands on its own merit as an exciting read with fantastic storytelling.

Christmas parade

by Sandra Boynton

Chickens with bassoons!
Piccolo mice!

Boynton returns with a holiday story filled with her signature rhythmic style.  The onomatopoeia will draw the audience in on the very first page.  For storytime, it would be lots of fun to have band students visit with the actual instruments in the parade.   If not, any rhythm instruments make a preschool crowd into one of the liveliest marching bands possible.

Hidden by Helen Frost

On a trip to the store, eight-year-old Wren was accidentally kidnapped during a car jacking. Six years later, the new girl in Wren's cabin at summer camp has a connection to that long-ago incident.

The tension between the girls is well-told: Each is scared and wary of the other, and both have spent six years wondering about and kind of hating the other, without really ever having met. The story's told in alternating chapters between Wren and Darra, and each girl has her own poetic form - Wren in short, visually creative stanzas, and Darra in longer free-verse, with another facet of the story constructed between the lines.

It's a great story - something I haven't seen a bunch of times before - and I was completely captivated by the girls' stories and connection. They're relate-able characters with honest feelings and complicated lives. The book brings up some interesting subjects: victimization, difficult family relationships, mixed emotions, and childhood trauma. But it's not a heavy story. The story zips along briskly, and Frost has made every word work its hardest in less than 150 pages.

Emma's Poem by Linda Glaser

Meant for older kids, this poetry picture book tells about Emma Lazarus, the woman who wrote Lady Liberty's famous call to "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

I found the book fascinating, and Kristine said the prose gave her goosebumps. I didn't realize that the Statue of Liberty was never intended as the symbol of immigration that we see it today - it was Emma Lazarus' poem that did that. Her poem was written in response to a call for help fundraising for the immense pedestal needed for the statue (a friendship gift from France). Emma imagined and wrote about what the large lady might have been thinking ... and as a result changed our perspective on this icon.

This is the kind of book kids writing reports on American history love. It's simply and colorfully illustrated by Linda Glaser, and it gives a great amount of information in a fun, dynamic manner.

Emma Dilemma by Kristine O'Connell George

Jessica has a little sister, Emma. The two have a very typical sister relationship: close, friendly, antagonistic.

The book is really a series of brief poems that build into a larger story of the girls' relationship: the annoyance of a pesky little sister going through your stuff, the delight in sharing an old favorite book together, the challenge of splitting a piece of pie so it's really fair. But later in the book it's darker as Emma breaks her arm and Jessica worries she might have prevented the accident.

While the book is subtitled "Big Sister Poems," really they're simply sister poems. Whether you're the little or the big sister, you'll find something familiar here. I think kids will enjoy finding bits of themselves in both Emma and Jessica and revisiting the ups and downs of sibling love and rivalry.

October Mourning

by Leslea Newman

You likely remember a tragic story that made headlines in the autumn of 1998.  A young, trusting college student named Matthew Shepard left a bar with two men he believed to be friendly, and like him, gay.  Eighteen hours later, a bicyclist found him tied to a fence rail and beaten so badly that he never woke in the last five days of his life.

Newman crafted a series of poems surrounding the incident.  She chose to feature a vast array of viewpoints including: each of the men involved, the first officer on the scene, the fence post, and a young deer passing by.  Whether you followed the headlines raptly, or tried to ignore the hate that brought about the crime, this story will make you cry.  The author's hope is that it can be used to teach about tolerance and compassion.

This book is heart-wrenching and filled with beautifully sculpted poems.   

Lies, Knives and Girls in Red Dresses by Ron Koertge

Have you ever read the old, non-Disney-fied versions of fairy tales? The dark, gothic ones the Grimm brothers actually collected from the oral tradition? This book of poetry is a spin on those horror-filled tales of morality.

Angsty, angry teen girls admit their attraction to the naughty, forbidden wolves and monsters. Minor characters in often-told narratives get their opportunity to tell the story from their perspective.

Many of the stories are a little naughty. Most are hilarious for the unexpected spin they put on familiar tales. Definitely not the kind of book for your toddlers - but teens and adults will enjoy revisting their nursery favorites!

The Wonder Book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Kids and adults in love with grammar, punctuation, puns, and poetry will get a giggle out of this silly collection.

Rosenthal compiled anagrams, wrote punny little pieces and amused herself with various silliness - then illustrator Paul Schmid ran wild to add simple yet detailed black and white doodles.

Better for slightly older kids who'll get the joke, but most fun to share and enjoy together!

Flamingos on the Roof by Calef Brown

There's a great "mouth feel" to the rhymes here - I kept finding myself reading them out loud: first to Kristine, then to myself as I mouthed them silently.

Every one of the poems in this book will make you giggle. Or laugh out loud. And I don't even like poetry (usually).

But Calef Brown is a genius - and the goofy folk art style illustrations make the silliness even better.