Verse Novel: "Street Love"

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Myers, Walter Dean. Street Love. New York: Amistad, 2006.

Two households both alike in dignity,
In urban Harlem, where we lay our scene,
Love holds all promise if she'll let him in,
our Junice Ambers and her Damian.

Two star-crossed lovers sigh in Harlem. What forces conspire to keep them apart? Rival gangs, rival mother's, their own rival imaginations? Imaginations that keep them at cross purposes?

Damian Battle is headed to Brown where he competed for and earned a spot at one of the most prestigious colleges in the country. Junice Ambers is headed to the Bedford Hills Prison where her mother has been sentenced to and earned (according to the courts) her place of despair.

This tale, breathtakingly told in elegant verse, is both tragedy and love story. Will the sadness of impoverished Harlem undue them? Or will love conquer all as Junice turns to Damian and their hearts become full and the darkness of the street is illuminated.

YALSA Best Book for Young Adults. YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers.

Realistic: "Monster"

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Myers, Walter D. Monster. NY: Harper Collins, 1999.

A young man sits in jail awaiting trial for a robbery in which a shopkeeper was killed. This is a film script of the events leading up to the trial, the trial itself, and the verdict.

The events of Steve Harmon's life have created an eddy of nightmarish possibilities for punishment of a crime. A crime he may or may not have committed. As the facts and fictions of the crime swirl through his head, he tries to calm his growing panic by recording the terrifying events of his recent life as a film script.

Steve is a good kid from a good family from a good home in a bad part of town. He has no record of prior arrests, but an array of bad characters has fingered him as the lookout for a recent robbery. A robbery-gone-bad where a shopkeeper was killed. Are the bad guys pointing at him so they can cut a deal for themselves? Or was Steve sucked into the crime with the promise of some fast cash. Is this all really nothing more than a film script? A mere figment of Steve Harmon's imagination?

Monster? You be the judge.

Booklist Editors' Choice. Coretta Scott King Honor Book. Michael L. Prinz Award. New York Times Notable Book. YALSA Best Book for Young Adults. YALSA Outstanding Books for the College Bound. YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers. Kentucky Bluegrass Award.

GLBTQ: "Keesha's House"

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Frost, Helen. Keesha's House. Waterville, Maine: Thorndike Press, 2005.

Seven teens on the run find shelter at Keesha's house.

The stories are nothin' new: Stephie and Jason get pregnant, Dontay runs from foster care, Carmen is in for DUI, Harris's father can't accept he's gay, and Katie's mother can't see her abusive stepfather for the piece of crap he is.

The stories are nothin' new, but this time they have a place to go...Keesha's house. The house actually belongs to Joe, and while he is the heart it, Keesha is the heart and soul of this house.

It used to be when kids showed up they'd say,
I'm lookin' for Joe's house. Somebody sent me
here
and said to ask you for a place to stay
tonight. They'd stay a week, a month,
a year...
It's still like that, 'cept now they look at
me
like, where'd you come from? Ain't this
Keesha's house?

This story is told in the first person using a hybrid of traditional and non-traditional sestinas and sonnets. Some of the seven teenagers will find their way back home and some of the seven will make their home in a house that's both beautiful and durable- Keesha's house.

Michael L. Printz Honor Book. YALSA Best Books for Young Adults. YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, What Makes a Family?