Shy, quiet Elisa is used to going unnoticed except when the boys in her school ask her to write poetry in the form of love notes. Struggling with her parent’s marital problems and a crush on one of her “clients,” she retreats to a pond in the woods where her love for ice-skating helps her come out from under cover and take center stage.

In the early 1800s, poetry could land a person in jail. Among the most subversive were a group of young writers known as the Romantics: Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth and John Keats. These rebels were barely out of their teens when their words changed the course of literature.

Newbery medalist Cynthia Rylant returns to her home state of West Virginia with this powerful collection of poems about the hardships, joy, laughter and loss faced by the wife of a coal miner.

These entertaining poems explore everything from love and conformity to the nature of time. Lawson stretches the boundaries of various poetic forms to create humorous and thought-provoking verses.

Traditional poems capturing Latino culture in America are presented in both English and Spanish.

Love, school, and all kinds of everyday teenage problems are the focus of this collection of gritty, hip-hop style poems.

Five students respond in poetry when their teacher goes berserk and takes their history class hostage.

Art and poetry are brought together as famous pieces of art are interpreted by modern poets in this unique and attractive collection.

Collection of poems about love featuring classic poets like Shakespeare and Whitman.

This collection features poems by young people from the U.S., Canada, England, Jamaica, Haiti, Barbados, Panama, St. Thomas, and several African countries.

Short, intense poems based on the author’s experience as a teenager with a sister suffering from mental illness.

The work of Nobel Laureates, rock n’ rollers, Beats, cowboy poets, rappers, and even former presidents are combined into a poetry collection unlike any other.

Free verse poetry written by young men about love, anger, and jealousy.

Through a series of poems written from the perspective of those closest to her, Hemphill explores Sylvia Plath’s life. Supported with photos and an extensive list of facts and sources, Your Own, Sylvia is a terrific companion to Plath’s own works.

With a neglectful mother who has an abusive, live-in boyfriend, life for fifteen-year-old Samara is far from fine. But when a substitute teacher walks into class one day and introduces her to poetry, Samara starts to view life from a different perspective.

Biographical poems about one of the greatest painters of the 20th century.

This novel in verse follows 14-year-old Lizzie through a year in which, despite her loving family, a circle of good friends, and a potential first boyfriend, she struggles with a personal secret. She desperately wants to find out the story behind her adoption and her own identity, and discover why she deserves to be loved.

As Virginia shuttles between Union and Confederate control, Annie witnesses “revolting horrors” in her own backyard. She is initially convinced that her side of the battle is the right one—Virginia fights for states’ rights, not for slavery. But Annie’s certainty deteriorates as the war divides her family, and—linked by their mutual love of poetry—she loses her heart to an occupying Union soldier.

Juan Francisco Manzano was born in 1797 into the household of wealthy Cuban slaveowners. He spent his early years at the side of his owner’s wife, entertaining her friends. His poetry was his outlet, reflecting the beauty and cruelty of his world. Written in verse and based on Manzano’s autobiographical notes and poems, The Poet Slave of Cuba creates a portrait of a life in which even the pain of slavery could not extinguish the capacity for hope.

The spirit, drive, and devotion of the players and their supporters are captured in short poems that describe one high school basketball season.

A collection of over 100 poems celebrating horses of the past and present.

Short poems from different viewpoints tell the story of one town in Oklahoma and its struggle for survival during the Great Depression.

The tragic story of a terrible circus fire on July 6, 1944 in Hartford, Connecticut is told through poems.

Lila, born with an allergy to sunlight, uses poetry to describe her plans to finally feel the sun’s rays on her birthday.

Chronicles the world of Harlem Renaissance artists, writers, and activists such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.

This illustrated poem describes the people, places and history of the author’s hometown.

Forty-four poems, told from the poet of view of Carver and the people who knew him, celebrate his amazing accomplishments.

Poets and artists born or living in 20 Middle Eastern and North African countries describe and celebrate through homeland through poetry and painting.

The story of a lonely young man living in the post WWI tenements of the French-Canadian district of Monument, told in blank verse.

Lonnie Collins Motion tells the story of his difficult life and his struggle for happiness through a series of school-assigned poems.