80 pages • 2 hours read
Andrea Beatriz ArangoSomething Like Home
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Middle Grade | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Andrea Beatriz Arango
A Puerto Rican author, Andrea Beatriz Arango is known for her sensitive portrayal of difficult themes through verse. She focuses on children’s and middle grade literature that delves into personal and social issues, including mental illness, foster care, and therapy. Arango has earned a Pura Belpré Honor for Something Like Home and a Newbery Honor for Iveliz Explains It All, which follows seventh-grade Iveliz’s as she copes with a mental health condition. As a “former public school teacher with almost a decade of teaching experience,” Arango balances work as an ESL interpreter “with writing the types of children’s books she wishes students had more access to” (“About.” Andrea Beatriz Arango). She wants to share books about different cultures, especially Latinx backgrounds.
Arango grew up speaking and writing in Spanish, often giving her poetry to family members as gifts (“Cuéntame! Let’s Talk Books with Andrea Beatriz Arango.” Library of Congress. YouTube, 2024). She has firsthand experience writing Spanish words, which she uses from characters like Titi Silvia. By giving Laura’s family a similar Puerto Rican culture, Arango inserts themes of diversity and identity. Through her writing, she wishes to build empathy and acceptance for everyone (“Cuéntame! Let’s Talk Books with Andrea Beatriz Arango”). Arango hopes her book promotes understanding and compassion, especially for kids in foster care and non-traditional families (245).
In the Author’s Note in Something Like Home, Arango reveals another personal connection: She loves dogs. She cites the “magic of therapy dogs” as an inspiration for the book, since she’s seen “how much joy they [dogs] can spread” (246). In the Acknowledgments, she also thanks her two dogs, Indi Jose and Ghosty, for their support. Ghosty is her real-life dog muse for Sparrow’s characterization. Sparrow exemplifies Arango’s positive feelings about therapy dogs and animal companionship.
Genre Context: Novels in Verse
Novels in verse are a “hybrid form in which a narrative with structural and stylistic similarities to a traditional novel is told through poetry” (“Verse Novel.” Poets.org). A novel in verse can also be called a “novel in poetry” that “filters the devices of fiction through the medium of poetry” (“Verse Novel”). The genre employs linked poems instead of prose. Thus, novels in verse use the elements of fiction—such as characterization, plot, and conflict—but the lyricism and format of poetry. Instead of using long paragraphs like traditional prose, poetry uses short stanzas with white space. Poetry concentrates on techniques such as rhythm, sound/cadence, rhyme, imagery, and figurative language. Compared to traditional narratives, poetry displays these craft elements with brevity. Whereas prose can have extraneous details, poetry gets to the subject quicker. Unlike formulaic poems of the past, like sonnets and haikus, most contemporary poetry is written in free verse. Something Like Home uses free verse, which gives authors the freedom to write without worrying about rhyming, counting syllables, etc.
For struggling readers like Laura from Something Like Home, poetry’s economy of language makes it easier and faster to comprehend. In this genre, authors use as few words as possible to make the characters and their worlds come alive. Often, writing less (also known as underwriting) about emotional matters—like addiction in this novel—creates a more evocative and memorable mood. Poems flow quickly with only the sharpest, briefest descriptions to encapsulate each emotion and scene. This writing style often appeals to young readers, perhaps because the poems keep their attention and don’t require literacy expertise or ample time to finish.
Novels in verse are increasingly popular for middle grade and young adult audiences, as they expose younger readers to diversity. In fact, some acclaimed novels in verse by authors of color include The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (2018), The Crossover by Kwame Alexander (2014), Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (2020), and Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga (2019). Other prominent titles include Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, Starfish by Lisa Fipps, and Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. These stories tackle subjects like racism and fat shaming with poetry’s emotional depth, narrative voice, and attentive diction. Given their popularity and accessibility, novels in verse will likely remain a staple for young audiences.
