Caroline Starr Rose, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson debut new novels for young readers in verse

Two New Mexico authors — Caroline Starr Rose of Albuquerque and Vaunda Micheaux Nelson of Rio Rancho — have recently published books for young readers that are described as “novels in verse.”

Both novels are pleasurable summer reads whether you are a youngster or an adult.

You might call the novels hybrids; they combine the narrative structure of novels (plot, character, setting) within a poetic form, usually free verse.

Rose’s book is titled “The Burning Season.” It’s about 12-year-old Opal, who is learning from her mom and Gran to be a lookout in a fire tower in the Gila Wilderness in southwestern New Mexico.

Their job is to watch for wildfires in the tower’s tight space where they live. As much as she likes their home together, Opal dreams of going to school in town.

Opal also keeps a secret. She is afraid of fire.

With her mom headed to town for supplies over a muddy trail, Opal and Gran remain in the tower. But Opal has accidentally shattered the lenses of a pair of binoculars critical for searching for tell-tale forest fire smoke.

Ashamed about her mistake in not using the binocular’s strap, Opal runs off. An hour later, she’s back at the tower, but now Gran isn’t there. Gran leaves a note saying she went out to find her.

Opal waits and waits, but still no Gran. That sets up a dramatic second half of the book. Opal prays that Gran is sheltering while she makes preparations to head out to search for her.

She sees a signal — a flash on a piece of glass — and finds Gran in a rocky overhang.

“It’s scary to see her tired and small,/tucked against the mountainside./My gran, usually so strong,/leans against a granite slab,/one shoe off,/her ankle swollen.”

The drama builds as Opal is off and running again, searching for the source of some smoke “as it twists and climbs” in the forest, fearing a fire could endanger Gran.

It’s a marvelous adventure story and a story of survival. One poem, “I Slip,” shows plucky Opal pushing forward: “… pine needles slick/I skid/slide/tumble/terrified/scrape/my arm/my cheek/my chin/rubbed raw/and burning …”

Though injured, she is strong enough to build a firebreak “big enough to hold inside/the snag and burning branches.” Then she must contain small flames that appear beyond the barrier.

All by herself. Such bravery.

Opal, mom and Gran survive their ordeals.

An extended author’s note explains such issues as fire management, the Great Fire of 1910, changes in fire policy since 1910, lookouts in the Gila Wilderness, and drought and climate change.

Like “The Burning Season,” “Radiant” is a warm story about the value of family and friendship, but it also raises issues of class and race.

The novel is set in an unnamed town in 1963; Nelson said that at some level it is autobiographical, based on circumstances she experienced growing up near Pittsburgh.

The protagonist of “Radiant” is Cooper Dale, a fifth-grade girl who at the start of the school year is the only Black student in her school.

In the opening poem, Cooper says sometimes she wants to be white. At church, there are so many shades of skin color, “Shades/like licorice and cola,/caramel and cinnamon,/ginger and peanut butter …”

The story shows how Cooper learns about forgiveness, how hard she works at being a good student and a good person, how she tries to cope with her strict teacher Mrs. Keating, dubbed the Queen of Darkness, and how she puts up with Wade, the mean boy who sits next to her in class.

Cooper tells her girlfriends she wants “to shine,” but Wade turns that word into a racial slur, asking her, “Shine what … Shoes?”

Cooper looks up “shine” in the dictionary and concludes it means “a lot of good stuff” as her Mama intends it: “It means brilliance and splendor./-That’s what I want. I want to shine./To be brilliant./To be radiant. ‘Radiant’ is one of the words/Charlotte the spider spins in/her web to save her friend/Wilbur the pig./And it works …”

Cooper and Wade soon have other connections. Her mother goes to work as a maid at Wade’s family home when his mother becomes ill with cancer.

After her death, Wade and his father come to Cooper’s house to buy a bird dog from her grandfather. It’s the same dog that Opal had become attached to and nicknamed Buddy.

Nelson also presents Cooper’s life in the context of events in the larger world.

Cooper is infatuated with The Beatles and is happy to find out that the Fab Four were influenced by soul musicians. We see her sadness over the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and how she looks forward to watching “The Wizard of Oz.”

Nelson said in a phone interview that she liked that her novel presents Cooper’s family as “strong, loving and safe and to let readers know that this is possible, that there are families like that. … Today it’s about broken families.”

“Radiant” is Nelson’s first novel in verse. “I love the brevity and sparsity and how they invite readers into what is not said,” she stated.

“The Burning Season” is Rose’s third novel in verse.

Both authors have received awards for their previous books for children and young readers. Their new books deserve wider recognition.

Caroline Starr Rose, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson debut new novels for young readers in verse