Novels in Verse about Family Issues

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Teen books
• Novels in verse
• Books about family relationships and problems

Hugging the Rock
By Susan Taylor Brown
YA F BROWN
Through a series of poems, Rachel expresses her feelings about her parents’ divorce, living without her mother, and her changing attitude towards her father.

Comfort
By Carolee Dean
YA F Dean
Fourteen-year-old Kenny Roy Willson fantasizes about escape from his hometown of Comfort, Texas, following his alcoholic father’s release from prison.

The Geography of Girlhood
By Kirsten Smith
YA F SMITH
A novel written in verse follows Penny Morrow in her transition from middle school to high school as her father remarries, she acquires a new stepbrother, and she experiences her first dance, first kiss, and other hazards of growing up.

One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies
By Sonya Sones
YA F SONES
Fifteen-year-old Ruby Milliken leaves her best friend, her boyfriend, her aunt, and her mother’s grave in Boston and reluctantly flies to Los Angeles to live with her father, a famous movie star who divorced her mother before Ruby was born.

Rubber House
By Ellen Yeomans
YA F YEOMANS
A novel in verse relates seventeen-year-old Kit’s experiences as her younger brother is diagnosed with and dies of cancer and as she withdraws into and gradually emerges from her grief.

The Simple Gift
By Steven Herrick
YA F HERRICK
Sixteen-year-old Billy leaves behind his drunken, abusive father, takes refuge in an abandoned freight train, falls in with the wealthy, restless Caitlin, and discovers the true meaning of friendship and family.

On Pointe
By Lorie Ann Grover
YA F Grover
Clare and her grandfather must deal with changes in their lives when Clare’s summer growth spurt threatens to end her dream of becoming a ballet dancer and her grandfather suffers a stroke.