Special Collections
Poetry for Kids and Teens
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Loving vs. Virginia
by Patricia Hruby Powell and Shadra StricklandFrom acclaimed author Patricia Hruby Powell comes the story of a landmark civil rights case, told in spare and gorgeous verse.
In 1955, in Caroline County, Virginia, amidst segregation and prejudice, injustice and cruelty, two teenagers fell in love. Their life together broke the law, but their determination would change it.
Richard and Mildred Loving were at the heart of a Supreme Court case that legalized marriage between races, and a story of the devoted couple who faced discrimination, fought it, and won.
Karma
by Cathy OstlereIt is 1984, and fifteen-year-old Maya is on her way to India with her father. She carries with her the ashes of her mother, who has recently committed suicide, and arrives in Delhi on the eve of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination - one of the bloodiest riots in the country's history.
Then Maya is separated from her father and must rely upon the help of a mysterious, kindhearted boy, Sandeep, to safely reunite them. But as her love for Sandeep begins to blossom, Maya will have to face the truth about her painful adolescence . . . if she's ever to imagine her future.
In this gorgeous, haunting portrait of love, loss, and growing up, Cathy Ostlere - in masterful strokes of verse - has created a simply unforgettable read.
What My Mother Doesn’t Know
by Sonya SonesComposed entirely of short poems in free verse, What My Mother Doesn't Know captures the ups and downs of Sophie's freshman year of high school and her first real romance.
The Poet X
by Elizabeth AcevedoFans of Jacqueline Woodson, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds will fall hard for this astonishing #ownvoices novel-in-verse by an award-winning slam poet, about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her story with blazing words and powerful truth. Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.
But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can’t stop thinking about performing her poems. Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.
A New York Times Bestseller
2018 National Book Award Winner for Young Adults
Dead On Town Line
by Leslie ConnorMaking her powerful yet quiet debut, Connor delivers this original novel-in-verse--the story of a girl who is murdered by a classmate and finds herself stuck on the edges of the world she once knew and a realm whose tug she feels but can't quite find her way to.