Waiting on Wednesday (25): The Language Inside

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine.

I used to really hate novels in verse, but I've read a good one this year (Love & Leftovers) and have decided that I need to give poetry more of a chance. I've heard wonderful things about Orchards, Thompson's first book, and I am seriously loving the blurb for this one, and it's at least partly in verse. So far, I'm not sure.

The Language Inside

Author: Holly Thompson
Expected Publication Date: May 14, 2013
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Emma Karas was raised in Japan; it's the country she calls home. But when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, Emma's family moves to a town outside Lowell, Massachusetts, to stay with Emma's grandmother while her mom undergoes treatment.

Emma feels out of place in the United States.She begins to have migraines, and longs to be back in Japan. At her grandmother's urging, she volunteers in a long-term care center to help Zena, a patient with locked-in syndrome, write down her poems. There, Emma meets Samnang, another volunteer, who assists elderly Cambodian refugees. Weekly visits to the care center, Zena's poems, dance, and noodle soup bring Emma and Samnang closer, until Emma must make a painful choice: stay in Massachusetts, or return home early to Japan.