Items15The creator’s order
  1. 1The Poet X (2018)The Poet X (2018) 9.6/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2018Xiomara writes poems she can keep to herself before she starts performing them for other people. Try reading one of the short pieces aloud. Its pauses and emphases give you a way into the change from what she writes privately to what she dares to say in a room.0
  2. 2Long Way Down (2017)Long Way Down (2017) 6.5/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2017A short elevator ride gives Will time to think about avenging his brother. Each stop brings another person into the car and another reason to question the rules he grew up with. The spaces between brief passages leave room for a decision that the clock hardly gives him time to make.0
  3. 3Inside Out & Back Again (2011)Inside Out & Back Again (2011) 7.7/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2011Hà’s dated poems track one year, from her family’s last months in Saigon to their life in Alabama. A fruit, a school lesson, or a change in the way people speak can hold an entire entry. The form leaves time between those scenes for the reader to notice what she misses.0
  4. 4Clap When You Land (2020)Clap When You Land (2020) 8.6/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2020Camino waits at an airport in the Dominican Republic while Yahaira goes to school in New York. A plane crash gives the two girls different pieces of the same loss. Reading their voices in turn lets you notice what each girl knows about their father and what neither has been told.0
  5. 5The Crossover (2014)The Crossover (2014) 9.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2014Josh’s short, quick lines can speed up as he moves down the basketball court. The book also gives him quieter ways to talk about his twin brother and their father. Try reading a game sequence and a family scene aloud to hear how the rhythm changes.0
  6. 6The Black Flamingo (2019)The Black Flamingo (2019) 9.2/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2019Michael’s story follows him through school and into university, where he finds a way to perform as the Black Flamingo. The verse makes room for changes in how he names and presents himself. Start with the pages about performance if you want to hear the difference between having a voice and trying…0
  7. 7Bronx Masquerade (2002)Bronx Masquerade (2002) 7.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2002A classroom open mic lets students share poems with classmates who think they already know them. Grimes alternates chapters in the students’ voices with the pieces they read aloud. You can follow the gap between how a student is seen in class and what that student chooses to reveal in a poem.0
  8. 8The Weight of Water (2012)The Weight of Water (2012) 4.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2012After arriving in England with her mother, Kasienka has to find a place in a new school as well as in a new country. The short poems give her room to dwell on the things others might hurry past. The swimming scenes offer a change of pace and a place where she knows what to do.0
  9. 9Out of the Dust (1997)Out of the Dust (1997) 8.3/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 1997Billie Jo records life in Dust Bowl Oklahoma in dated free-verse pieces. Watching the entries change across seasons gives a sense of the work involved in getting through a day, and the white space lets an ordinary object carry some of the weight of the moment.0
  10. 10Aniana Del Mar Jumps In (2023)Aniana Del Mar Jumps In (2023)Published Jan 1, 2023Ani loves the feeling of moving through water, and the poems about swimming move quickly down the page. Her life slows in a different way as pain interrupts her routines. That change in pace helps you follow how she tries to keep swimming after a diagnosis of juvenile idiopathic arthritis.0