Unsinkable Cayenne: An Award-Winning Middle Grade Novel-in-Verse About Belonging for Kids (Ages 8-12)

2025 NCTE Notable Verse Novel High Plains Book Award Winner “Intensely readable.” —School Library Journal (starred review) When her unconventional parents finally agree to settle down in one place, twelve-year-old Cayenne’s dreams come true—but the reality of fitting in is much harder than she imagined. Acclaimed author Jessica Vitalis crafts an unforgettable historical novel-in-verse about belonging, family, and social class, for fans of Lisa Fipps’s Starfish and Jasmine Warga’s Other Words for Home. As Cayenne enters seventh grade, her parents decide it's time to stop living in their van, roaming from place to place. Cayenne hopes that this means she will finally belong somewhere and make some friends. But it turns out that staying in one place isn’t easy at all. When her social studies class studies the Titanic tragedy (the wreckage has just been discovered and her teacher is obsessed), Cayenne sees more and more parallels between the social strata of the infamous ship and her own life. Will she ever squeeze her way into the popular girls’ clique, even though they live in fancy houses on the hill and she lives in a tiny, rundown home with chickens in the front yard? Is it possible that the boy she likes actually likes her back? Can she find a way to make room for herself in this town? Does she really want to? Maybe being “normal” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Set in the mid-1980s, this literary novel is for readers of Megan E. Freeman’s Alone and Erin Entrada Kelly’s We Dream of Space.
ASIN: 0063314452
VSKU: RDV.0063314452.VG
Condition: Very Good
Author/Artist:Vitalis, Jessica
Binding: Hardcover
Note: Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.
Condition Notes: This book is in excellent condition. There may be minimal writing on the inside cover or cover page. Cover image on the book may vary from photo. Ships out quickly in a secure plastic mailer.