I am new to the whole novel in verse thing--this is my second one, I think. Admittedly, I've never been much on a poetry girl. But, this novel is the Vermont Humanities Council book, and our students are doing a book talk later this month, so I dove in. 
 Woodson weaves the words. The poems are long and short. They have many stanzas and few. They speak of feelings and of politics. And together, they tell the story of a girl who wanted nothing more than to be a writer.