8. Alone by Megan E. Freeman

Read on Kindle - it was in verse 

2021

404 pgs.
Middle grades/survival CRF
Finished 1/28/2022
Goodreads rating: 4.20
My rating: 5
Setting: contemporary-ish small town Colorado

My comments: A beautifully written novel in verse  Gorgeous words.  And an incredible story. I so wish there had been an additional five pages so that we could hear what had happened to her parents for the past three years.  Three years all alone in a deserted and abandoned Colorado town...at 12 years old, trusting yourself to figure out how to survive!  Wow!  I can't imagine kids not enjoying this, and I can't wait to begin reading it aloud to my fifth graders.

Goodreads synopsis:  When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She’s alone—left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned.

With no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. Her only companions are a Rottweiler named George and all the books she can read. After a rough start, Maddie learns to trust her own ingenuity and invents clever ways to survive in a place that has been deserted and forgotten.

As months pass, she escapes natural disasters, looters, and wild animals. But Maddie’s most formidable enemy is the crushing loneliness she faces every day. Can Maddie’s stubborn will to survive carry her through the most frightening experience of her life?

33. Macy McMillan and the Rainbow Goddess by Shari Green

read the actual book - from Bosler Library
2017, Pajama Press
239 pgs.
Mid Grades CRF in verse
Finished 4/9/18
Goodreads rating:  4.37 - 254 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary anywhere, USA

First line/s: 
"Our house on Pemberton Street
with the red front door
wildflower garden out back
window seat just right for reading
has a For Sale sign jammed
in the front lawn.
It's the ugliest thing
I've ever seen."

My comments:  Wow. As an adult, this book really spoke to me. Powerfully. It actually has many themes, but the strongest for me was the relationship that formed between the 11-year-old girl, Macy,  and her elderly neighbor, Iris, – who ended up being the rainbow goddess of the title. It’s all about the value of our stories, our memories, our “family.”  Since it’s written in verse, it didn’t take very long to read - and it was lovely. I’m going to want to read this one again.

Goodreads synopsis: Sixth grade is coming to an end, and so is life as Macy McMillan knows it. Already a For Sale sign mars the front lawn of her beloved house. Soon her mother will upend their little family, adding an unwelcome stepfather and pesky six-year-old twin stepsisters. To add insult to injury, what is Macy s final sixth grade assignment? A genealogy project. Well, she'll put it off―just like those wedding centerpieces she's supposed to be making. 
          Just when Macy's mother ought to be sympathetic, she sends her next door to help eighty-six-year-old Iris Gillan, who is also getting ready to move―in her case, into an assisted living facility. Iris can't move a single box on her own and, worse, she doesn't know sign language. How is Macy supposed to understand her? But Iris has stories to tell, and she isn't going to let Macy's deafness stop her. Soon, through notes and books and cookies, a friendship grows. And this friendship, odd and unexpected, may be just what Macy needs to face the changes in her life. 
          Shari Green, author of Root Beer Candy and Other Miracles, writes free verse with the lightest touch, spinning Macy out of her old story and into a new one full of warmth and promise for the future.

Stories Told in VERSE

Young Adult

Acevedo, Elizabeth - Clap When You Land, 2020 (5)

Crossan, Sarah, The Weight of Water, 2012 (5)
Engle, Margarita, The Firefly Letters, 2010 (4)
Hopkins, Ellen, Burned, 2006 (3)
Schroeder, Lisa - The Day Before, 2011 (4)
Sones, Sonya, What My Mother Doesn't Know, 2001 (4)
Stone, Tanya Lee, A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl, 2006 (4)
Thompson, Holly,  The Language Inside, 2013 (4)

Middle Grades

Bernier-Grand, Carmen T., Frida, 2007 (5)
Calhoun, Dia, After the River the Sun, 2013 (4)
Creech, Sharon, Hate That Cat, 2008 (5)
Creech, Sharon, Love That Dog, 2001 (5)
Creech, Sharon, Moo, 2016 (4.5)

Faruqi, Reem, Unsettled, 2021 (5)

Fipps, Lisa, Starfish, 2021 (5)

Freeman, Mega E., 2021 Alone (5)
Green, Shari, Macy McMillan and the Rainbow Goddess, 2017 (4.5)
Holt, K. A., House Arrest, 2015 (5)

LaRocca, Rajani - Red, White, and Whole, 2021 
Rose, Caroline Starr, May B, a Novel, 2012 (3)
Shovan, Laura, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, 2016 (4)
Zimmer, Tracie Vaughn, Reaching for Sun, 2007 (4)

Tween

Bryant, Jen, Pieces of Georgia, 2006 (4)

6. House Arrest - K. A. Holt

read on my Kindle
2015 Chronicle Books
304 pgs. (written in verse)
Middle Grades
Finished 2/10/17
Goodreads rating: 4.26 (1577 ratings)
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary USA (at one point it mentions Texas)

My comments:  The beginning of the story (below) sets it up particularly well, but doesn't tell of the dire straits that Timothy, his mom, and his baby brother are in.  Not only is Levi on super expensive medicine, he must be accompanied every minute because his breathing can be compromised without notice.  That means help.  And the help they end up getting causes more bad than good.  There is so much love in this book. Lots of other wonderful stuff, but lots of love.  Written in verse, as a diary/journal.

Goodreads synopsis:
Stealing is bad.
Yeah.
I know.
But my brother Levi is always so sick, and his medicine is always so expensive.

I didn’t think anyone would notice,
if I took that credit card,
if, in one stolen second,
I bought Levi’s medicine.

But someone did notice.
Now I have to prove I’m not a delinquent, I’m not a total bonehead.

That one quick second turned into
juvie
a judge
a year of house arrest,
a year of this court-ordered journal,
a year to avoid messing up
and being sent back to juvie
so fast my head will spin.

It’s only 1 year.
Only 52 weeks.
Only 365 days.
Only 8,760 hours.
Only 525,600 minutes.

What could go wrong?

2. Moo by Sharon Creech

Library Book
2016 Harper Collins
288 pgs.
Middle Grade CRF in mostly verse
Finished 1-8-16
Goodreads rating: 3.92 - 1507 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Maine, with the best of two worlds, an oceanside town that has farms

First line/s:  "The truth is, she was ornery and stubborn, wouldn't listen to a n y b o d y, and selfish beyond selfish, and filthy, caked with mud and dust, and moody: you'd better watch it our she'd knock you flat."

My comments:  Because this was short, mostly written in verse form (with a little prose that's almost like verse) there was not quite as much character development as I'd like for a 288-page book, but it was certainly a wow-ing book.  It's a lot to do with farm animals, and I'm not an animal lover in any way, shape, or form....and I STILL liked it a lot.  Yes, very predictable, but who cares?  I'll certainly recommend this book to reluctant readers of either gender, especially if he/she is an animal lover.  AND it takes place in MAINE!

Goodreads synopsis:  Fans of Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech’s Love That Dog and Hate That Cat will love her newest tween novel, Moo. This uplifting tale reminds us that if we’re open to new experiences, life is full of surprises. Following one family’s momentous move from the city to rural Maine, an unexpected bond develops between twelve-year-old Reena and one very ornery cow.
          When Reena, her little brother, Luke, and their parents first move to Maine, Reena doesn’t know what to expect. She’s ready for beaches, blueberries, and all the lobster she can eat. Instead, her parents “volunteer” Reena and Luke to work for an eccentric neighbor named Mrs. Falala, who has a pig named Paulie, a cat named China, a snake named Edna—and that stubborn cow, Zora.
          This heartwarming story, told in a blend of poetry and prose, reveals the bonds that emerge when we let others into our lives.

37. The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary by Laura Shovan

Library book
2016, Wendy Lamb Books/Random House
256 pgs.
CRF in verse for Middle Grades
Finished June 24, 2016
Goodreads rating:  4.14 - 509 ratings
My rating:   4

My comments:  Stupidly, this is one of the reviews that I didn't write during the summer when I read the book (I HATE when I do that!)  It was written in verse from the point-of-view of different kids, and I wished that I'd taken quick, short notes about each of the kids from the start.  I think this would be an awesome book to use with middle grade book groups.

Goodreads synopsis:
Eighteen kids,
one year of poems,
one school set to close.
Two yellow bulldozers
crouched outside,
ready to eat the building
in one greedy gulp.

But look out, bulldozers.
Ms. Hill's fifth-grade class
has plans for you.
They're going to speak up
and work together
to save their school.

Laura Shovan's engaging novel is a time capsule of one class's poems during a transformative school year. The students grow up and move on in this big-hearted debut about finding your voice and making sure others hear it. 

41. The Language Inside - Holly Thompson

2013, Delacorte Press

522 pgs. (but it's in verse, so it's a quick read)

YA CRF with a multicultural twist

Finished 6/26/2014

Goodreads Rating: 3.80

My Rating: 4/Very, very good

Amelia Given Library, Mt. Holly Springs

Setting: a contemporary Lowell, Massachusetts suburb

1^st sentence/s:
       third time it happens
       I'm crossing the bridge
       that slides through town
       on my way to a long-term care center
       to start volunteering

My comments:  This book certainly had many layers, and many, many themes.  One of those books that keeps you thinking.  Imagine having a stroke in your 30s that only allows you to move your eyeballs?  Imagine living in America, being an American, and having half of your thoughts and dreams in another country? And then on top of that, having your mom very ill, prognosis uncertain.  Tsunami devastation in Japan, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, Japanese and Cambodian dance, volunteering in a rehabilitation center, living in a new culture and missing the old one as well as living with immobilizing migraines...well that's a lot for one book.  But it works.  Beautifully.
          The book was written in verse and included a lot of references to poetry, which was wonderful.  But some of the verses in the book did not flow well, for me, as I read them (of course, some did). Line breaks and page breaks seemed to come in weird places.  Was it the way it was edited or the way it was written?  No matter, the story was extremely well done.

Goodreads Summary:
          Emma Karas was raised in Japan; it's the country she calls home. But when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, Emma's family moves to a town outside Lowell, Massachusetts, to stay with Emma's grandmother while her mom undergoes treatment.
          Emma feels out of place in the United States.She begins to have migraines, and longs to be back in Japan. At her grandmother's urging, she volunteers in a long-term care center to help Zena, a patient with locked-in syndrome, write down her poems. There, Emma meets Samnang, another volunteer, who assists elderly Cambodian refugees. Weekly visits to the care center, Zena's poems, dance, and noodle soup bring Emma and Samnang closer, until Emma must make a painful choice: stay in Massachusetts, or return home early to Japan.