Welcome back to Bookending Summer!

I wrote a lot of acrostic poems in elementary school (more than half of which featured my name and were meant as fun “about me” activities for the new school year) but haven’t really revisited the form since. While cleaning up my Goodreads shelves, several book titles caught my eye, and I thought it could be fun to combine the two!

Pick a summer-themed word (ex: beach, fireworks, heatwave, barbecue, vacation) or the title of a book with summer vibes. Write it vertically, then try to fill in titles that start with each letter (you can omit determiners like “the” and “a”). For example, if your first book is Radiance, then you might have [The] Raven Boys, Anna Undreaming, Darius the Great Is Not Okay, and so on.

Difficult mode: Use only books that fit a theme, such as “three-word titles” or “YA contemporary” or “squad goals.”

This post is part of Bookending Summer 2019, which is organized by Sam & Clo! Today’s prompt, “Down and Acrostic,” is hosted by yours truly — so if you do this prompt don’t forget to link back to this post!

For my main word, I decided to go with the imagery invoked by the title of Sea Glass Summer, even though I didn’t love the book when I read it years ago. (There really isn’t much substance to my review, though, and it has been years, so it may deserve a second chance!)

And of course I chose to take my own challenge — my overachiever tendencies have been well documented, including in my decision to aim for the highest badge in the Year of the Asian Reading Challenge (YARC). So my theme for this list is Asian authors, because I love any opportunity to promote diverse books and all the lovely rep I’ve encountered this year has made my heart so full.

 

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim

Eclipse the Skies by Maura Milan

Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han

 

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen

American Panda by Gloria Chao

Small Town Hearts by Lillie Vale

Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing, The by Mira Jacob

 

So Much I Want to Tell You: Letters to My Little Sister by Anna Akana

Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

Midnight Star, The by Marie Lu

Moon Lady, The by Amy Tan

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

River of Stars, A by Vanessa Hua

Do you have a favorite poetry form? What words and/or titles make you think of summer?

If you do this prompt, please don’t forget to link back to my post!