Children's Fiction in Verse

Hugging the Rock by Susan Taylor Brown

• Rachel and her father form a tight bond after her mother leaves them.
• See also: Divorce 

Love that Dog by Sharon Creech

• A boy chronicles his relationship with poetry in poems.

Crazy Man by Pamela Porter

• Emmeline becomes friends with the man from the nearby mental hospital who is helping on her family's farm.

The Dancing Pancake by Eileen Spinelli

• Pub Date: 2010
• Grades 3-6 interest 
• Bindi's parents separate, and she must get used to a whole new life with just her mom.
• See also: Divorce 

Red Butterfly by A. L. Sonnichsen

• Pub Date: 2015
• Grades 4-7 interest 
• Kara, who was born with a limb difference and abandoned at birth, must deal with some big life changes.

Grow by Juanita Havill

• Pub Date: 2008
• Grades 3-6 interest 
• A story about a community garden and a group of neighbors making a difference. 

Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry

• Pub Date: 2017
• Grades 4-7 interest
• Diversity: Tourette Syndrome, Chinese-American characters
• See also: Moving/New Kid, Multiple Narrators

Catching a Storyfish by Janice Harrington

• Pub Date: 2016
• Grades 4-7 interest
• Diversity:  African-American protagonist
• See also: Moving/New Kid, Intergenerational 

Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan

• Pub Date: 2013
• Grades 5-8 interest 

Rhyme Schemer by K.A. Holt

• Pub Date: 2014
• Grades 5-8 interest 

Little Cat's Luck by Marion Dane Bauer

• Pub Date: 2016
• Grades 2-5 interest
• See also: Animals 
• My review: here

Forest World by Margarita Engle

• Pub Date: 2017
• Grades 4-7 interest 

Macy McMillan and the Rainbow Goddess

• Pub Date: 2017
• Grades 4-7 interest
• See also: Gardens 

Related: Children's Books (not in verse) in which a character connects with poetry

Hope is a Ferris Wheel by Robin Herrera

• Pub Date: 2014
• Grades 4-6 interest
• See also: Moving/New Kid 
• The vocabulary assignments that Star completes are a highlight of this novel. 

Destiny, Rewritten by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

• Pub Date: 2013
• Grades 4-6 interest 
• Emily is named after Emily Dickinson, but she doesn't even really like poetry that much. 

The Way to Bea by Kat Yeh

• Pub Date: 2017
• Grades 5-8 interest
• See also: Starting Middle School, In Verse, Only Child 
• Bea writes poems, especially haiku.