Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

A Month in Verse: Novel Read Along

12 Comments

How are you doing, readers?

Cover of The One and Only IvanI’ve read one of my three titles, THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN. It was a lovely, quick read told in the voice of a gorilla. Yes, you heard that correctly. Author Katherine Applegate was inspired to write IVAN after learning about a gorilla who for three decades lived in a tiny cage at a mall. Now the real Ivan lives at the Atlanta Zoo (Katherine has created a website for those interested in finding out more about this remarkable fellow).

I’d heard great things about this book before beginning. It was included on the Winter 2012 Kids’ Indie Next List as well as Amazon’s Best Books of the Month for Kids (January 2012). IVAN is making waves as a contender for the 2013 Newbery Medal.

Ivan at Zoo AtlantaBut is it a verse novel?

I have to say no. While it is written with a close first-person point of view (which is a technique often used with novels in verse) and the chapters — if you can call them that — aren’t conventional, I don’t think what Katherine has created qualifies as verse. Much of the story is poetic and deeply introspective. It is clear she’s written verse before (think of her well-received HOME OF THE BRAVE). But I don’t think this book is poetry.

And you know what? I also don’t think it matters.

What Katherine has done is to first and foremost write in a style that is most true for her character and his situation. What she’s created works. And as for genre, who cares? 

Still, I’m counting this as one of my three titles for the Verse Novel Read Along. I figure reading challenges are more about experiencing books than getting things “right”. 

Here’s what Holly, a fellow reader, has to say about the book:

What’s amazing about the writing is that it’s so simple and sparse, but incredibly poignant, and in parts, funny. The story is a cross between Water for Elephants and Charlotte’s Web – it captures the complicated relationship between people and animals without being sappy or didactic.

Those of you reading verse novels this month, what have you read so far? 

Comments

  4. The Muse says

    Hi there! I just read May B. today (and reviewed it on my blog– http://www.curledupreading.blogspot.com– if you’d like to check it out), and I really enjoyed it. I’m also an English teacher, and it made me think a lot about how I’ve taught in the past… thanks for writing. I’d love to read more of your books! (And someday, I hope to write a few of my own as well!) Happy Poetry Month!

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  5. Rebecca says

    I’m going to have to get my hands on The One and Only Ivan. I’ve read two of my chosen verse novels so far this month. The third is one that I have read before, and I just remembered that I bought a used copy of Shark Girl at the library book sale, so maybe I’ll read four this month!

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  6. The Muse says

    So true! I’d love to pick your brain about your writing process and how you get ideas for books (that’s my biggest hurdle!)… do you have an email address I could write to? If you’re okay with that, feel free to send me a message via thecurledupreadingmuse@gmail.com. If not, thanks again for writing May B. It taught me a lot.

    Reply

  7. Augusta Scattergood says

    I just finished Ivan last night. Lovely story. Felt a little like poetry–something about the sparseness of the words, the sound, the rhythm? But I know what you mean. Not sure I would call it novel-in-verse either.

    Reply

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