December
29
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The 2019 Nerdies: Poetry and Novels in Verse, Announced by Mary Lee Hahn
Congratulations to the 2019 Nerdy Book Club Award winners for the best children’s and young adult poetry books and novels in verse of the year!
This year’s winners prove that poetry is a verse-atile container for emotions, ideas, and topics.
ANTHOLOGY
Thanku: Poems of Gratitude
edited by Miranda Paul and illustrated by Marlena Myles
Thirty-two poets write in thirty-two different poetry forms about many of the reasons for and ways to feel gratitude.
MEMORIES AND MEMOIR
I Remember: Poems and Pictures of Heritage
edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Read this book from back to front. Start with the child+adult author and illustrator photos and background information. Then read each memory poem and picture pair. Finally, savor each poet’s definition of poetry.
Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir
by Nikki Grimes
“I hope my story helps you live more fully into your own.”
Soaring Earth: A Companion Memoir to Enchanted Air
by Margarita Engle
Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, Engle continues her memoir into her teen years, writing realistically about the challenges of college, and the way community college saved her.
Shout
by Laurie Halse Anderson
The follow-up to Anderson’s Speak. It’s been twenty years. Now it’s time to Shout.
HISTORY AND HISTORICAL FICTION
Dreams from Many Rivers: A Hispanic History of the United States Told in Poems
by Margarita Engle and illustrated by Beatriz Gutierrez Hernandez
This is one U.S. History book that belongs in every classroom. How better than with poetry can we teach the five-century Hispanic history of what is now the U.S.?
This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality
by Jo Ann Allen Boyce & Debbie Levy
As more and more teens take the lead in social justice and environmental causes, this book can anchor their work to the roots of the school integration movement in the 1950’s. Extensive back matter adds to the richness of the story.
Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc
by David Elliott
Perhaps history can show today’s strong girls the way to stay true to themselves. The voices in this book are Joan’s, and, in medieval poetic forms, the voices of the people and objects in Joan’s life. Also included are direct quotes from Joan’s two trials.
White Rose
by Kip Wilson
White Rose tells the true story of a young German activist who gave her life in order to stand up against Hitler’s regime.
THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY
All of Me
by Chris Baron
Ari is overweight and bullied because of his size. He is searching for self-acceptance.
Emmy In the Key of Code
by Aimee Lucido
Emmy combines coding and music to find a way to belong.
Other Words for Home
by Jasmine Warga
Jude moves from Syria to Cincinnati and must hold onto the truth of herself in a new country.
Redwood and Ponytail
by K. A. Holt
What if being the truest you-you means holding pinkies with another girl? And what if not everyone is okay with that?
The Moon Within
by Aida Salazar
What does it mean to be yourself? To be a girl? Should you celebrate your first period with an ancestral Mexica moon ceremony?
Mary Lee Hahn is a 5th grade teacher in Dublin, Ohio. Her poetry has been published in the Poetry Friday anthologies, Dear Tomato: An International Crop of Food and Agriculture Poems, and The National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry. Her poetry website is maryleehahn.com, she blogs with Franki Sibberson at A Year of Reading, and she can be found on Twitter @MaryLeeHahn.
Nerdy Book Club 
excellent
Thrilled to see some of my favorites from the year in this list – Shout and Other Words for Home – and lots of new titles to explore. Next up is This Promise of Change, a Newbery possibility from some of the hopeful lists. And I want to read the ARC I received of Ordinary Hazards that’s been patiently waiting in my stacks.
I’ve read some of these and many are on my TBR list. Thanks for the post.
What a great list! I’ve read five of these, so now I know what I should read next! Thanks. 🙂
Thank you, Mary Lee Hahn! Many books to add to my to be read list.
beautiful bok coveres. Gives me lots to think on.