Swing by Kwame Alexander

Noah and Walt are two high school students who have been best friends since childhood. Walt's character is an old soul in a teenager's body. He has high hopes and aspirations for his current, teenage life including making the baseball team, which he has been cut from for three years, pursuing a love interest he meets at a thrift store, and implementing his life/love lessons he learns from his cousin and from a podcast. Meanwhile, Noah wants to throw in the towel for baseball and concentrate on his love interest, whom he has loved since childhood, Samantha. 

The friendship between Noah and Walt is extremely endearing, authentic, and special like no other. The boys experience typical teenage drama: heartbreak, social awkwardness, being cool, school, and just life in general. Kwame weaves into the story jazz music by its rhythmic manner that narrates the story. This story really warmed my heart, but then it crushed it in the end and I am still trying to recover from it. I highly recommend this book to all as it brought many smiles and many tears throughout. 

Crossover by Kwame Alexander

Twin brothers Josh and Jordan Bell are two middle school star basketball players, whose father was a popular and talented "baller" overseas that lost an opportunity to play for the L.A. Lakers due to an injury. In this free verse, fast-paced novel, the audience is taken through a period of these boys' lives of basketball, family, girlfriends, school, and traumatic life events. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and became deeply attached to this family, mourning at the end and longing for a different ending. The rhythmic sound of each page made this a page turner that I finished in just two hours. 

#5 Mrs. Staples

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins is currently one of my favorite free verse books that I have read. Narrated from a drug rehabilitation center, Vanessa, Connor, and Tony share their stories of drug use, child molestation, promiscuity, cutting, and attempted suicide. The love triangle among the three narrating characters is sweet, but Connor struggles with love because he dealt with intense and mature love affairs. Tony struggles with love because he is unsure of his sexuality. Vanessa struggles with love because she had been verbally abused by a former boyfriend. Though the topics are very powerful and some of the descriptions of cutting and abuse are intense, this is a book that keeps the reader interested. Overall, I would highly recommend this book to teenagers and older. The ending caught me by surprise and left me extremely emotional for all the characters having to witness one of the final scenes. 

#3 Mrs. Staples

The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan

The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan is a beautifully written free-verse book that gives the reader insight on twenty different characters/teenagers from one high school. The book is organized into five parts with four chapter-like sections in each part. Each character tells his/her story using first-person point of view and tells it as a poetic and rhythmic stream of consciousness or response to another character's entry. There is no closure to the book and the lives continue, but Levithan leaves the reader wondering what may come of the lives of each character. I would definitely recommend this book because of all the possibilities of love that exist and how those stories of love (and heartache) will continue. 

#2  Mrs. Staples