Simon,
I saw a really good talk by Marilyn Nelson on this. She writes these and she says that there is a very good -- commercial! -- market for them these days. She mentioned another YA verse novelist whose work was being considered for film and asked, "When was the last time you heard a poet talking about film rights?"
There is definitely something here, and from my little dipping of the toe into reading in the area I have seen that a number of these are verse novels in metrical form.
I talked to a middle school librarian about it a few years back and she said that the students love them--in part because they deal with tough subject matter, and in part because there are fewer words on the page.
Interesting!
Best, Tony
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