Verse novels are beautiful. I love how sparse and hard-hitting they are, and I’ve been reading them all the more because I’ve been writing verse too. Uncontrollable came out last year, and Fishbowl will be out later this year. But I read In the Beautiful Country by Jane Kuo because it’s on the required reading list for a workshop that I’m excited to attend later this year. I’m honoured to have received a Highlights Foundation scholarship for an online workshop of my choice, and I’ve chosen one on revising my verse novel. In the Beautiful Country is the first book I’ve read for the workshop!
The United States of America is the beautiful country. At least, that’s what it is called in Taiwan, which is where Anna, aka Ai Shi, is from. But is it a beautiful country when she cannot understand what her schoolmates are saying? Is it a beautiful country when she is teased and bullied for everything from her food to her clothes? Is it a beautiful country when life was so much easier in Taiwan?
The verse form suits this story about identity, belonging, and the struggle to find home perfectly. Like Inside Out and Back Again, it’s about a girl who doesn’t speak fluently in English. How would complete sentences and paragraphs work? Perhaps because the protagonist is so much more likeable, or the telling so much smoother, I enjoyed In the Beautiful Country much more than Inside Out and Back Again. It’s a story about choices. A story about realising that whatever circumstances we may be in, it’s the choices we make that define who we are and who we become.
| Title | In the Beautiful Country |
| Author | Jane Kuo |
| Tags | Verse Novel, Immigration, Middle-Grade |
| Rating (out of 5) | 4.5 |
| Age-group | 10+ |
Congratulations on winning ‘Highlights foundation scholarship’.
Thank you!