December
29
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The 2018 Nerdies: Poetry and Novels in Verse
Congratulations to the 2018 Nerdy Book Club Award winners for the best children’s and young adult poetry books and novels in verse of the year! Thank you to the hundreds of educators and families who nominated books.
Children’s Books
Can I Touch Your Hair?: Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship by Irene Latham & Charles Waters, illustrated by Sean Qualls & Selina Alko (Carolrhoda Books)
Knockout by K.A. Holt (Chronicle Books)
Lifeboat 12 by Susan Hood (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Martin Rising: Requiem for a King by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney (Scholastic Press)
Rebound by Kwame Alexander (HMH Books for Young Readers)
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Boy by Tony Medina, illustrated by 13 Artists (Penny Candy Books)
Young Adult Books
Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough (Dutton Books for Young Readers)
For Every One by Jason Reynolds (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books)
Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots by Magarita Engle, illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein by Lita Judge (Roaring Brook Press)
Swing by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess (Blink)
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (HarperTeen)
Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners by Naomi Shihab Nye (Greenwillow Books)
Nerdy Book Club 
A beautiful list. Outstanding work. Congratulations to all
Such wonderful books! Many congratulations, poets! I love these…. xx
As a short-list judge, we all agreed on this, every one of these books is amazing – a pleasure to read: “A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.” Robert Frost
Definitely some I still need to visit. Loved The Poet X and Voices in the Air. I heard Naomi Shihab Nye at the May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture this year. And I managed to see both Charles Waters & Irene Latham this year, so both have autographed my copy of Can I Touch Your Hair? Finally, I still remember sitting in my car in the library parking lot to read Martin Rising since it was due and I hadn’t read it yet. Poetry and novels-in-verse are the desserts in my reading diet! So glad to request some new desserts from this list.