You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Verse novels could boost young people’s pleasure in reading.
It’s no secret that children are losing their love of reading. According to a recent report by The National Literacy Trust, a mere 43% of eight to 18-year-olds claim to read for pleasure, and the figures are lowest for boys and those who receive free school meals. There’s an urgent need for change.
What’s the cause? Opinions vary. Some blame the thickness of middle-grade novels. Others, smartphones and video games for shrinking attention spans. Perhaps school curricula, exam texts and reading programmes might cramp kids’ reading styles? One thing’s clear: we need to address this issue before it’s too late. We know that children who read for pleasure are likely to have better life outcomes, wider vocabularies and be more imaginative and empathic. Reading is a life-skill and a joy.
Which is where verse novels could help. They’re often overlooked, but are a refreshing change, combining the power of storytelling with the accessibility of poetry, the voice of drama and the visual appeal of graphic novels.
Verse novelist Jason Reynolds argues that if someone’s afraid of dogs, we don’t present them with a pit bull. So why do we “show up with a pack of pit bulls in the form of pages” and expect young people to stop running away? He advocates the verse novel as an approachable entry point for reluctant readers and I agree. With their sparse text and generous white space, verse novels offer an easier, quicker, pacier read and a sense of accomplishment to neuro-divergent children and those with shorter attention spans who may struggle with dense blocks of text.
But it’s more than brevity, more than layout. Novels-in-verse are immersive, gripping reads thanks to the rapid pace of storytelling and the typically high level of emotional intensity. Children can insert themselves into the ‘empathic gaps’ left between the words. Authors are experimenting, creating increasingly inventive blends of free and concrete poems with song lyrics, scripts, prose, journals, social media, illustrations . . . in some works, slices of everyday life are spread across the pages. For examples, see Dean Atta’s Black Flamingo, Sara Barnard’s Where the Light Goes, and my own Crossing the Line.
Verse novels often appeal to boys, as librarian Lucas Maxwell points out in his blog post 5 Ways to Engage Boys in Reading for Pleasure. With their combination of high interest level and accessibility, verse novels could help combat the reading drop-off as boys enter secondary school. Particularly appealing for that transitional stage would be The Final Year (Matt Goodfellow) and Shout Out Ferran Burke (Steve Camden), while verse novels such as Kwame Alexander’s Crossover series are an ideal teen read.
[Verse novels] are a refreshing change, combining the power of storytelling with the accessibility of poetry, the voice of drama and the visual appeal of graphic novels
But in among this accessibility and engagement, the educational value of verse novels shouldn’t be overlooked. They invite deeper exploration. Within a verse novel are all the poetic devices and inferences an English teacher could wish for, with the bonus that children who enjoy what they are reading, learn more easily. Students struggle with texts they feel are not relevant and hard to read quickly; with fragments read aloud at intervals too widely spaced to maintain engagement (see again Lucas Maxwell’s post on the huge benefits of reading aloud to students). Although verse novels could address these issues, there are none I’m aware of among current GCSE English literature texts.
However, while English teachers and librarians praise verse novels’ ability to engage reluctant readers (as proof, the form is disproportionately represented in the UKLA and Carnegie shortlists), still they remain niche in the UK. There aren’t many titles on offer. So what’s holding them back from achieving the mainstream recognition they have in the US? Why are they seen as a sales risk?
I think visibility and lack of categorisation for verse novels is a significant issue. Finding your next read in a bookshop can be frustrating because there’s no separate shelving for verse novels – unlike plays, poetry or graphic novels. Readers can’t buy what they can’t see. Even Nielsen BookScan uses searchable tags patchily, if at all, making it hard to judge sales of the format. Try searching on Amazon for "verse novel" within children’s books. Where are the titles you would expect? Why are so many graphic novels in the search results? It would be excellent if the category "verse novel" were added to all review sites and online retailers. LoveReading4 Kids, by the way, has curated a good list here.
The absence of the verse novel from the English syllabus only exacerbates the problem. Integrating them into the curriculum could be a game-changer, providing students with diverse and engaging texts that foster a love of reading. But supporting teachers in this endeavour is crucial, especially since there is nervousness about reading verse aloud. More resources – especially audio/video models – would help guide teachers. Some prefer lessons they can download and teach again and again, others would like a basis from which to develop their own. If publishers and exam boards could provide free resources and training, this would help teachers to navigate this relatively unexplored territory and work with verse novels as part of their professional development.
Ultimately, the widespread adoption of narrative verse depends on a collective effort from publishers, booksellers, educators and readers alike. By championing them, we can do more to make sure that every child has the opportunity to experience the joy of storytelling in its many forms.
Picture of Tia Fisher © Maria Green www.fotosbyfaith.co.uk/.