Book Summary
A book
that flows like a basketball game is how the story of twelve-year old Josh Bell
plays out in this great book about twin brothers who work as a team on the court
but struggle to remain brothers when girls and challenges come. This verse
novel is filled with basketball rules that inspire, family dedication and a
plenty of emotion in the lead up to the final buzzer.
Reference
Alexander, K. (2014).
The crossover. Ernst Klett Sprachen GmbH. New York
Impressions:
This book a great coming of age novel told in verse. The book had
a nice rhythm and the story is really heartfelt. I didn’t think the book had
any stereotypes and was honestly authentic. Alexander does a really great job
of keeping the book light but also delving into really important matters like
family, friendship, morals and winning. The book is philosophical at times
which I really appreciate, knowing middle schoolers are beginning to tackle the
meaning of life. I strongly recommend this book to athletes and poetry lovers.
Professional Review:
Twins Josh and Jordan have always been friendly rivals on the basketball
court, where they are following in their basketball legend father’s footsteps.
Over the course of the season, though, Josh finds his world rocked by small and
large changes: he loses a bet that results in him having to cut off his lucky
locks, he feels abandoned when Jordan starts hanging out with a girl, and his
mother and father are fighting. When his anger and frustrations get the best of
him, Josh lashes out at his brother on the court, and his mother, a principal
at his school, suspends him from the team—and things get worse from there.
Alexander fully captures Josh’s athletic finesse and coming-of-age angst in a
mix of free verse and hip-hop poetry that will have broad appeal. The lively
basketball poems in particular beg for energetic oral performance, while the
free verse shows the multidimensionality of a teen wordsmith figuring out the
shifting conditions of life on and off the court. The book draws additional
strength from the portrait of Josh’s father, a strong but flawed role model
who’s so haunted by his own father’s early death that he won’t take steps to
guard his health. With pithy poems that use basketball as a metaphor for life
lessons off the court, two-voiced poems that highlight the ebb and flow of
conversations that say too much and nothing at all, and poems inspired by
vocabulary words that require extended definitions to tease out their emotional
relevance and force, this will inspire budding players and poets alike.
Coats, K. (2014). The crossover by Kwame Alexander (review). Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 67(6), 303-303.
Library Uses:
Grades 7-12:
The Crossover can be used for performance pieces since the book is written in
verse with a rap style. A librarian would find a way to record students
performing different sections of the book. The book mention famous basketball
players which can engage students interested in sports but not necessarily
books.
The book
also incorporates many different styles of poetry which can be used for poetry
lesson in ELA classes. Couplets, Tanka, List Poems, Free Verse, Tercet and
other styles are all present in this book.
