What do you think?
Rate this book
Stories from East High #3
Poetry in Motion
Everyone at East High is freaking out. In one week, every student in Ms. Barrington's English class must recite an original poem in front of a special school assembly. Chad, Jason, and Zeke are afraid they'll be laughingstocks, but Troy is determined to help his friends succeed. Enlisting Gabriella's help, Troy helps his basketball buddies understand that there's more than one way to bust a rhyme!
126 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
12 people are currently reading
390 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
October 11, 2020
More fun from this series...and some great poetry, too!
August 12, 2013
I cannot believe I am actually giving this rating to this book, I never thought I'd see the day where I would give a High School Musical book five stars, especially since the stories don't include any of the songs therefore leaving out the most important factor in the films.
However this isn't a movie novelization. Much like other books that are based on films or tv series such as Buffy, Charmed, Angel, Sweet Valley High, Glee and others, this is a completely original story, and it is the best one from this series so far, I so hope that I come across more books from Alice Alfonsi.
I don't know if the high rating is due to me being a Creative Writing student, as this book is all about poetry, and just last year I had never even heard of an iambic pentameter let alone what it looked like and examples of them. Yet after taking a Poetic Writing module in my course, I knew exactly what one was along with Haiku's and Sonnets. A few well known types of poems weren't even mentioned, but I understand that this book is not for adults and so they don't want to pile too much into kids. But this is definitely a book to inspire the younger generation into liking poetry.
Alice Alfonsi has the characters down perfectly, even including background characters that I had forgotten about. It was such a perfect book, and the inclusion of original poems along with ones from Shakespeare, Byron and Whitman, made me forget that I was missing the songs found in the films. Instead I was enjoying reading the poems, I just wished I could have read Taylor's poem, that must have been technically great.
I really got into this book, I escaped to pure bliss and I like how it isn't just a kids book. The kids will read the words 'Sonnet' and 'Haiku' and not care or at least look it up to understand it, whereas I already knew what they were and just found this book perfect in every way.
Definitely a must-read for any HSM fan, or people who have seen the films but aren't much of a fan. And as I mentioned before this is just not a book for young people, adults will love it too, just like I did!
However this isn't a movie novelization. Much like other books that are based on films or tv series such as Buffy, Charmed, Angel, Sweet Valley High, Glee and others, this is a completely original story, and it is the best one from this series so far, I so hope that I come across more books from Alice Alfonsi.
I don't know if the high rating is due to me being a Creative Writing student, as this book is all about poetry, and just last year I had never even heard of an iambic pentameter let alone what it looked like and examples of them. Yet after taking a Poetic Writing module in my course, I knew exactly what one was along with Haiku's and Sonnets. A few well known types of poems weren't even mentioned, but I understand that this book is not for adults and so they don't want to pile too much into kids. But this is definitely a book to inspire the younger generation into liking poetry.
Alice Alfonsi has the characters down perfectly, even including background characters that I had forgotten about. It was such a perfect book, and the inclusion of original poems along with ones from Shakespeare, Byron and Whitman, made me forget that I was missing the songs found in the films. Instead I was enjoying reading the poems, I just wished I could have read Taylor's poem, that must have been technically great.
I really got into this book, I escaped to pure bliss and I like how it isn't just a kids book. The kids will read the words 'Sonnet' and 'Haiku' and not care or at least look it up to understand it, whereas I already knew what they were and just found this book perfect in every way.
Definitely a must-read for any HSM fan, or people who have seen the films but aren't much of a fan. And as I mentioned before this is just not a book for young people, adults will love it too, just like I did!
October 13, 2024
Omg le background de Chad
October 5, 2022
EN EAST HIGH LEEN A RUBÉN DARÍO AJJSJS.
Nono sublime este libro y el registro neutrísimo que tiene lo hace aun mejor.
Nono sublime este libro y el registro neutrísimo que tiene lo hace aun mejor.
February 4, 2019
Very fun
March 5, 2023
Showstopping.
Hilarious and true to the HSM 2007 vibes so good and only slightly unreadable! Love the poetry lol and poetry in motion PFSHPOWWOW GENIUS.
4 stars because disappointed they didn’t say get your head in the game.
Highly recommend 100%firefireworddude
Hilarious and true to the HSM 2007 vibes so good and only slightly unreadable! Love the poetry lol and poetry in motion PFSHPOWWOW GENIUS.
4 stars because disappointed they didn’t say get your head in the game.
Highly recommend 100%firefireworddude
April 5, 2024
i know it’s disney and it’s a kids book, but, please, we all know troy and gabriella are dating, just let them be dating.
also, again, when are these supposed to be set bc the amount of times chad has now performed on stage and yet he STILL makes a fuss during every movie. lol.
still fun additions to the series tho.
also, again, when are these supposed to be set bc the amount of times chad has now performed on stage and yet he STILL makes a fuss during every movie. lol.
still fun additions to the series tho.
August 11, 2017
Paying tribute to my favorite characters when I was a child.
November 16, 2017
It was nice.
December 28, 2019
Brilliant!
October 19, 2022
It's great that this got at the heart of poetry and the arts - it's not just about technical skill, but what you can convey to the audience.
Read
November 14, 2022Back when I fed my childhood HSM obsession one book at a time.
Read
March 17, 2023good bless the school library
September 29, 2024
alternative tagline: chad can basketball… but can he poem?? 😔
November 30, 2024
I don't understand what the point of writing this was?? 😭
January 15, 2026
Loved it but wouldn’t reread it
April 10, 2022
Book 1 was a battle of the bands contest that only ended up getting a bad review from me because of Sharpay inexplicably losing her voice simply to give her storyline a struggle (convenient [and unbelievable-in-a-bad way] writing). Book 2 included the Sadie Hawkins dance. Surprisingly, I ended up liking book 2 more than book 1. This was loads better -- loads better than books 1 and 2 in this series.
In this one Ms. Barrington, the English teacher, announces to her classes that she's decided to hold a mandatory poetry reading. It's later revealed that it's not only mandatory, but a contest. Admittedly, this almost came across as Alfonsi leaning on book 1 for inspiration, but there were enough differences to let that slide.
Along with the poetry reading, the two seemingly-obligatory character dramas, this time around, have fallen on Chad and Sharpay. Chad doesn't want to recite a poem in public because of an incident years earlier where he bent over, ripped his leotard, and mooned the audience (how this wouldn't have affected him in book 1 with battle of the bands, I don't know. Alfonsi even wrote in Troy claiming "that was different" when Ms. Barrington asked how Chad's issue didn't affect their band).
Sharpay's issue is that while she can sing, dance, and anything that has to do with a musical performance or play, she doesn't really have any writing talent. In desperation, she comes up with the idea to partner with Kelsi Nielsen (glasses, girl at piano in movies). If Sharpay can stand in to sing for Kelsi's grandmother and grandmother's neighbors, Kelsi will help her with the poetry assignment/contest. Sharpay reluctantly agrees and they set out on this ... grammar quest(?).
Meanwhile, there's a side story for Gabriella. After she agrees to help out Chad with his writer's block and that of Troy, Zeke, and Jason, Troy accidentally leaves behind one of his notebooks and papers eventually fall out of it, revealing a poem he'd written. Honestly, this part kind of made Gabriella look like an emotional nitwit. She reads one of the stanzas "while picking up the papers," and assumes that Troy has written about some other girl. The nitwit part comes from actually reading the stanza. What she takes as a clear indication that the poem is about another female is actual very obviously a metaphor. In this book, I'm seeing the cause of Gabriella's lack of support from the fandom (what's left of it).
I also read on page 49 a corny mention. As the boys leave Gabriella's house just before Troy accidentally leaves his notebook behind, one of the guys left with his buds. Okay, I know this is probably a second grade reading level, but you just don't say "they left with their buds." This is as corny as the usage of "motley crew" to describe the four main characters in one of the Descendants novelizations. It's also things like this that help me remember how it felt when you were a kid and an adult was trying to be cool or to "slip into new slang" while failing to pull it up miserably. Just saying.
Despite those two issues, I'll give it 4 out of 5 stars. The best in the series so far.
In this one Ms. Barrington, the English teacher, announces to her classes that she's decided to hold a mandatory poetry reading. It's later revealed that it's not only mandatory, but a contest. Admittedly, this almost came across as Alfonsi leaning on book 1 for inspiration, but there were enough differences to let that slide.
Along with the poetry reading, the two seemingly-obligatory character dramas, this time around, have fallen on Chad and Sharpay. Chad doesn't want to recite a poem in public because of an incident years earlier where he bent over, ripped his leotard, and mooned the audience (how this wouldn't have affected him in book 1 with battle of the bands, I don't know. Alfonsi even wrote in Troy claiming "that was different" when Ms. Barrington asked how Chad's issue didn't affect their band).
Sharpay's issue is that while she can sing, dance, and anything that has to do with a musical performance or play, she doesn't really have any writing talent. In desperation, she comes up with the idea to partner with Kelsi Nielsen (glasses, girl at piano in movies). If Sharpay can stand in to sing for Kelsi's grandmother and grandmother's neighbors, Kelsi will help her with the poetry assignment/contest. Sharpay reluctantly agrees and they set out on this ... grammar quest(?).
Meanwhile, there's a side story for Gabriella. After she agrees to help out Chad with his writer's block and that of Troy, Zeke, and Jason, Troy accidentally leaves behind one of his notebooks and papers eventually fall out of it, revealing a poem he'd written. Honestly, this part kind of made Gabriella look like an emotional nitwit. She reads one of the stanzas "while picking up the papers," and assumes that Troy has written about some other girl. The nitwit part comes from actually reading the stanza. What she takes as a clear indication that the poem is about another female is actual very obviously a metaphor. In this book, I'm seeing the cause of Gabriella's lack of support from the fandom (what's left of it).
I also read on page 49 a corny mention. As the boys leave Gabriella's house just before Troy accidentally leaves his notebook behind, one of the guys left with his buds. Okay, I know this is probably a second grade reading level, but you just don't say "they left with their buds." This is as corny as the usage of "motley crew" to describe the four main characters in one of the Descendants novelizations. It's also things like this that help me remember how it felt when you were a kid and an adult was trying to be cool or to "slip into new slang" while failing to pull it up miserably. Just saying.
Despite those two issues, I'll give it 4 out of 5 stars. The best in the series so far.
June 28, 2023
2.5⭐️🤷🏻♀️
July 25, 2020
I didn't really enjoy
Battle of the Bands (High School Musical: Stories from East High, #1)
by N.B. Grace, and I also didn't particularly enjoy
Wildcat Spirit
by Catherine Hapka (and yes it does still annoy me that the titles don't follow the same convention on here). So, it's fair to say that I wasn't exactly hyped to read Poetry in Motion (High School Musical: Stories from East High, #3) by Alice Alfonsi (as evidenced by the fact that I read
Wildcat Spirit
in April 2018 and didn't get around to this book until January 2019).
However... much to my shock and surprise, I found myself actually quite enjoying Poetry in Motion (High School Musical: Stories from East High, #3). It feels like Alice Alfonsi has a good handle on the characters and how they would talk (for the most part) and the poetry idea allows this book to tap into what made the films so successful - music! There's even a hip-hop Astronomy rap performed by Martha which is just perfect. The idea that the guys use for performing their poem at the end is also executed wonderfully.
Admittedly it does feel like Sharpay's inclusion is a little forced, but it does mean we get to spend time with the severely underrated Kelsi so I suppose I can forgive that. And of course Gabriella jumps to a wrong conclusion and then instead of speaking about it spends the book stewing (hey, just like Wildcat Spirit !) which is frustrating. So far I feel like none of the authors have really got a handle on Gabriella's character.
Despite these criticisms, this book is actually pretty enjoyable. I'm almost looking forward to reading the next one now.
3/5
However... much to my shock and surprise, I found myself actually quite enjoying Poetry in Motion (High School Musical: Stories from East High, #3). It feels like Alice Alfonsi has a good handle on the characters and how they would talk (for the most part) and the poetry idea allows this book to tap into what made the films so successful - music! There's even a hip-hop Astronomy rap performed by Martha which is just perfect. The idea that the guys use for performing their poem at the end is also executed wonderfully.
Admittedly it does feel like Sharpay's inclusion is a little forced, but it does mean we get to spend time with the severely underrated Kelsi so I suppose I can forgive that. And of course Gabriella jumps to a wrong conclusion and then instead of speaking about it spends the book stewing (hey, just like Wildcat Spirit !) which is frustrating. So far I feel like none of the authors have really got a handle on Gabriella's character.
Despite these criticisms, this book is actually pretty enjoyable. I'm almost looking forward to reading the next one now.
3/5
March 31, 2008
This is one of my favourite book.It contains lots of wonderful poetries.( same,it took place at East High.)Everyone at East High are freaking out.In one week,the students in Ms. Barrington's English class will have to recite an original poem infront of the whole school!Chad is usually happy to ham it up no matter who is watching,but the embarrassing memory of a past poetry performance is seared onto his brain-and he's not sure he'll be able to pull off this assignment.Troy enlists Gabriella to teach Chad and the other basketball players that theres more than one way to bust a rhyme.BUT will she be able to save them from THE EVIL SHARPAY!!!??????!!!.....
Read
December 3, 2008I love this book beacuse i love the people in it who act in a move called HSM. Gabrella is teaching the wildcats to do poetry, and one night her boyfriend leaves his notebook in her house, and she thourght she would look in it and it was saying how he love someting bout she thourght it was someone girl, so she wasn't talking to him for time then, at the poem compertion, she won, and then troy came up to her and asked why shes not talkin to him then she said your in love with someone else that girl in your note book, the he said it's not a girl the name is what the skateboard, that he use to have and love, and then she felt so dumb.
July 23, 2016
I love series of school musical! ♡♥
The way the author sets It out gets me interested!
and I cannot think that is it a comedy or a romance
March 17, 2014
i read this book in about 3 hours. it was refreshing to relive my childhood. it became easier to imagine characters and setting since i already knew them so well. twas not only a light and fun book but also very well written at that. planning to buy all other installations soon!
November 10, 2007
is ma self
March 31, 2008
This book is about Gabriella which had to help the basketball players to bust a rhyme for a POEM! READ this book to find out how the basketball players did during the competition!
August 21, 2008
One of the best!
December 5, 2008
This was very good about the poetry~
January 10, 2009
Think about whats around you
January 28, 2009
coooooooooooooool
March 31, 2009
this book is so good i actually like reading it
i was reading it to my little sister....
i was reading it to my little sister....
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews