The Free Verse Society

Gr 9 Up–Jae and Derek would rather nobody knew how much their lives have changed over the past year. Jae, bearing the guilt and shame of having given up her baby for adoption, leaves her mother’s home in Atlanta to live with her uncle in Florida, where she’ll start the year in a new high school. Derek still lives in the same town but no longer in the seaside home he grew up in. He fears losing his friends if they find out his mother’s addiction forced the move. The two find themselves in the school’s poetry club for very different reasons: Jae loves poetry and considers the intimate club as a sanctuary, while Derek has nothing but disdain for the club, which to him is a punishment for an unintentional crime he committed trying to maintain his secret. As its newest members, Jae and Derek are required to find a venue for open mic night. Forced together, the two discover an unlikely mutual attraction and become a source of refuge for each other. But high school breeds petty jealousies and gossip, and the secrets each of them carries can’t remain hidden for long. Adjoa’s debut has developed complex characters in Jae and Derek and deftly creates empathy for their situations through poetry. However, the ending delivers resolutions to the characters’ complicated issues that might be longed for but are perhaps highly improbable. Jae and Derek are both mixed race: Jae has a white mother and a Black father; Derek has a white mother and his deceased father was from India.