The Crossover

Text: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

My immediate review on Goodreads: A beautiful YA novel written in verse. A stunning story about twins owning their basketball team while navigating friendship, brotherhood, family, and loss. Brilliantly done and a must read for middle year students (or any year for that matter)!

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a really emotional read for me, and if teaching it for younger grades I would probably give students a trigger warning so they are aware ahead of time that there is going to be death of a family member in the book in case any of my students were grappling with a loss.

There is a lot happening in The Crossover...from family relationships, to navigating middle school, to putting pressure on oneself to perform, to the love/hate relationship that can come with playing a competitive sport. I think this book is great because there a lot of students that would be able to see themselves in this book, and the verse is written in a way that is beautiful, yet attainable for students of younger ages to grasp.

I also thought the verse was stunning. I am a huge poetry nerd so I have been really geeking out over the language and all of the various styles of poetry that were used to tell the story. I am not exactly sure how I would teach this book because, like I said, there is a lot going on and a lot of different styles are used, but maybe that's good to show all the different types of poetic styles! It would be good for students to dig in a little deeper on what each style is, how it is used, what it means, and how it portrays a certain message in the book. They could even try writing their own versions of the different styles too!

Overall, I thought this was a great read, great for many ages, and a very emotional book. I cried. I also had a nightmare after reading this right before bed....woops!