Reversing: Reading in Verse

I am about to start reading Nikki Grime's Words with Wings. Last year, I introduced a group of my students to novels written in verse and we read Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan. None of them had read this style of book before and a few struggled to get into it. But their feedback was that you need to stick with it for several pages until "your brain wires itself to the verse", as one put it. And then it's easy going. Another student commented that she read around half the book and then put it down but when she came to continue reading it later, she found she had to start from the beginning again because it wouldn't flow. Several students said that they were immediately put off by the "poetry", because they couldn't imagine reading and enjoying a poem "that was so long". But when they came to understand that it is still a book with a storyline, they got into it and loved it.

My favorite comment? "We're calling it reversing," one student said. "Get it? Reading in verse. Re-versing!"

So I'm taking the advice of my students on reading a novel written in verse:
1. I'm going focus on wiring my brain for the first few pages.
2. I'm not going to put it down until I'm finished it; I've earmarked several hours of undisturbed reading.
3. I'm going to remember that this is still a book, and enjoy the story along with the words.