It’s Poetry Friday, which is always exciting, but today I am especially excited because today also marks the beginning of my Readalong. Welcome! I am so glad you dropped by.

What’s a Readalong, I hear you ask? A readalong is where you are invited to read a book (or, in this case books) along with others doing the same.  My readalong is running for four weeks, and each week I will be inviting you to read one of my verse novels. But don’t worry if you don’t have a copy of your own – you  can dip your reading toes in to the extracts I’ll be sharing, and get a taste.  If you DO have a copy, I would love you to grab it off your shelf, read, or reread, and participate by asking questions, posting comments, or sharing your reactions on social media using the hashtag #readwithsally, or the individual hashtags for each of the four books. This post here gives more details and, as you’ll see, the purpose of all this is to spread some verse novel love AND celebrate the release of my brand new verse novel, Worse Things, on May 1.

So,  to start at the beginning, this first week, I’d love it if you would read along with my first verse novel, Pearl Verses the World, which was released waaaay back in 2009.  Here is the cover, which still takes my breath away:

Heather Potter, the illustrator, rendered Pearl, and her world, so beautifully, and the team from Walker Books crafted the most amazing cover design.

If you haven’t yet read the book, here is the booktrailer that I made way back then (incidentally, this was my first ever attempt at a trailer).

And,  if you’d like to hear an extract, here I am reading the opening pages:

Lastly, because it’s Poetry Friday, here’s one of the poems:

If you already have a copy of Pearl Verses the World, I would love if you would pick it up this week and revisit it. If you don’t own a copy, it is available in three editions:

The Australian version, published by Walker Books.

The US version, published by Candlewick Books

And the UK version (with a shorter title, just Pearl), published by Walker UK.

(Note that while these links do go to online bookstores, our brick and mortar stores are really struggling at the moment, so if you are going to buy a book, and have access to a local bookstore (lots are delivering!), I urge you to shop there.)

In the next few days I am going to post more about Pearl Verses the World – why and how I wrote it, some of the lovely moments that have come from interacting with readers, and more.  You can join in: if you have a copy of the book,  or a memory to share, I’d love to see a post on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook (#pearlvworld), or a comment here or on my Facebook page.

Thanks for reading this far and for joining in in whatever small way you can. And don’t forget there is, as very Friday, lots of other poetry goodness happening all over the web. You can see the Poetry Friday roundup at The Poetry Farm, hosted by Amy.