New Review Tuesday: All the Broken Pieces

All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg is a powerful novel-in-verse about 12-year-old Matt, a Vietnamese boy adopted by an American family at the end of the Vietnam War. A natural athlete, Matt finds solace in baseball, but he's still haunted by what he's seen and the family he left behind.

The free verse format makes All the Broken Pieces a great pick for April's National Poetry Month for readers in middle school and up, and the baseball theme also coincides with springtime reading. But there's no doubt readers will remember Matt's story—and pass it along to their friends—all year long.

You might pair All the Broken Pieces with other baseball novels for older readers, such as Mike Lupica's Heat or with fiction about the Vietnam War—one of my favorites is Cynthia Kadohata's Cracker: The Best Dog in Vietnam.

Will you read other novels in verse for Poetry Month? If so, which ones?