When We Ride by Rex Ogle

 

When We Ride by Rex Ogle

Diego Benevides works hard. His single mother encourages him to stay focused on school, on getting into college, on getting out of their crumbling neighborhood. That’s why she gave him her car.

Diego’s best friend, Lawson, needs a ride―because Lawson is dealing. As long as Diego’s not carrying, not selling, it’s cool. It’s just weed.

But when Lawson starts carrying powder and pills and worse, their friendship is tested and their lives are threatened. As the lines between dealer and driver blur, everything Diego has worked for is jeopardized, and he faces a deadly reckoning with the choices he and his best friend have made.

Award-winning memoirist and poet Rex Ogle’s searing first novel-in-verse is an unforgettable story of the power and price of loyalty.

"In this riveting, at times heartbreaking verse novel, Ogle delivers an affecting portrait of two “ride or die” friends in dire circumstances for whom the phrase becomes scarily literal."

― Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Dynamic and affecting… Written in spare, emotive verse that features realistic dialogue and approachable poetic forms. Ogle develops characters and relationships that are so sincere, their growths and losses will likely be both celebrated and mourned by readers. Fans of Jason Reynolds's Long Way Down or Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X will likely savor this moving novel… Magnetic."

― Shelf Awareness

The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander

 

The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander

From the Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award winning author Kwame Alexander, comes a searing and breathtaking story of a boy, a village, and the epic odyssey of an African family.

In his village in Upper Kwanta, 11-year-old Kofi loves his family, playing oware with his grandfather and swimming in the river Offin. He’s warned though, to never go to the river at night.  His brother tells him ”There are things about the water you do not know. “Like what?" Kofi asks. “The beasts.” His brother answers.

 

One fateful night, the unthinkable happens and in a flash, Kofi’s world turns upside down. Kofi soon ends up in a fight for his life and what happens next will send him on a harrowing journey across land and sea, and away from everything he loves.

Welcome to National Poetry Month!

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world. Debut novel of renowned slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself.

So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

 

Love That Dog and Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech

Author Spotlight Page

Sharon Creech-- two novels in verse:  

These two novels take readers through two beautifully written stories about the connection of a boy named Jack to his dog Sky (and even a cat). It also illustrates a teacher's passion for teaching students about poetry and themselves, and a child learning to become something more than he first realized. Jack's exposure to Poetry-- reading, writing and appreciating this art form, is what binds the stories and the characters together.  The stories flow beautifully.  Whether you love or hate cats or dogs, love or hate poetry, you will love Jack's two stories about them them all.  I read each book in one sitting. 

Mrs. Flores  

Love That Dog

by Sharon Creech

Cover Art by William Steig

Copyright 2001

ISBN 978-1-404-66655-9

Ages 11-13

Teaching Resources: Love That Dog and Hate That Cat

Hate That Cat

by Sharon Creech

Cover Art by William Steig

Copyright 2001

ISBN 978-0061430947 

Grades 4-8

Teaching Resources: Teach Creech

Excerpt of a review from the School Library Journal about Hate That Cat:  

Jack is once again in Miss Stretchberry's class, developing his poetry composition skills and learning from the masters. Jack works his way into these concepts by means of Miss S's introduction to the work of Edgar Allan Poe, T. S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Valerie Worth, and Walter Dean and Chris Myers, and her constant encouragement of his own attempts. He also learns the poetry of silence as he and his mother communicate through sign language and tender gestures. It is a worthy sequel to Love That Dog.