Book
The crossover / by Kwame Alexander.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780544107717 (hc.)
- ISBN: 0544107713 (hc.)
- Physical Description: 237 p. ; 22 cm.
- Publisher: Boston, Mass. : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, c2014.
Content descriptions
| Target Audience Note: | Grades: 6-10. SLJ. |
| Awards Note: | Winner of the Newbery Medal for Children's Fiction, 2015. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Basketball > Juvenile fiction. Twins > Juvenile fiction. Brothers > Juvenile fiction. Fathers and sons > Juvenile fiction. Blacks > Juvenile fiction. Newbery Medal. |
| Genre: | Novels in verse. Sports stories, Juvenile. |
Other Formats and Editions
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gibsons Public Library | YA FIC ALEX (Text) | 30886000674065 | Young adult fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2014 March #2
The Bell twins are stars on the basketball court and comrades in life. While there are some differencesâJosh shaves his head and Jordan loves his locksâboth twins adhere to the Bell basketball rules: In this game of life, your family is the court, and the ball is your heart. With a former professional basketball player dad and an assistant principal mom, there is an intensely strong home front supporting sports and education in equal measures. When life intervenes in the form of a hot new girl, the balance shifts and growing apart proves painful. An accomplished author and poet, Alexander eloquently mashes up concrete poetry, hip-hop, a love of jazz, and a thriving family bond. The effect is poetry in motion. It is a rare verse novel that is fundamentally poetic rather than using this writing trend as a device. There is also a quirky vocabulary element that adds a fun intellectual note to the narrative. This may be just the right book for those hard-to-match youth who live for sports or music or both. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews. - BookPage Reviews : BookPage Reviews 2014 April
A tale of two brothersBookPage Children's Top Pick, April 2014
"Work smart / Live smarter / Play hard / Practice harder / Love, Dad" The Crossover is a novel-in-verse, with long flows of prose that spill out a tale of family, love, loss and basketball.
Josh and his twin brother Jordan live for the game and plan to play at rival colleges. Their mother is tough but fair with the boys, but she tries in vain to persuade their father to make healthier choices. An ex-player whose pro dreams faded after an injury, he lives through the boys' achievements while wolfing down Krispy Kremes. One crisis leads to another, and soon the family is mourning an irreplaceable loss.
The Crossover will appeal to basketball fans, and it will likely grab reluctant readers with its quick wordplay, deft rhymes and kinetic, poetic take on the game. "The bass booms. / The crowd looms. / There's music and mocking, / teasing nonstop, but / when the play begins / all the talk ceases." Author Kwame Alexander has made a gift to teachers with this book: References to classical and jazz music (Josh's dad nicknamed him "Filthy McNasty" after a Horace Silver song), probability (Jordan places bets on nearly everything) and the geometry of the game open up plenty of study topics without ever losing a step. Jordan's fledgling romance and the strain it puts on the brothers' relationship will draw sympathy from anyone who has ever felt deserted by a friend.
The title refers to a move made on the court, but The Crossover is destined to reachâand touchâreaders who never gave basketball or poetry a second thought until now. It's tough, muscular writing about a tender, unguarded heart.
Â
Heather Seggel reads too much and writes all about it in Northern California.
Copyright 2012 BookPage Reviews. - Horn Book Guide Reviews : Horn Book Guide Reviews 2014 Fall
Twelve-year-old twins Josh and Jordan (JB) are a well-oiled machine on the basketball court. But then JB gets a girlfriend, and before Josh knows it, things start to change. Josh's narration is a combination of exciting play-by-play game details, insightful observations on middle school, and poignant meditations on sibling dynamics and familial love. This verse novel has massive appeal for reluctant readers. - Horn Book Magazine Reviews : Horn Book Magazine Reviews 2014 #3
Josh and Jordan (JB), identical twin sons of former basketball phenom Chuck "Da Man" Bell, are ball legends themselves, and they aren't yet thirteen; Josh is the only middle schooler around who can dunk, JB has a mean three-point shot, and together they're a well-oiled machine on the court. But then things start to change, as they tend to do at their age: JB gets a girlfriend, and before Josh knows it, their relationship is strained to the point of a mid-game altercation that lands him benched for weeks. On top of that, their mother frets constantly over Dad's poor health, and the boys begin to worry, too. Josh's first-person verse narration is a combination of exciting play-by-play game details, insightful middle-school observations, and poignant meditations on sibling dynamics and familial love. Since poet Alexander has the swagger and cool confidence of a star player and the finesse of a perfectly in-control ball-handler, wordplay and alliteration roll out like hip-hop lyrics, and the use of concrete forms and playful font changes keep things dynamic: "SWOOP in / to the finish with a fierce finger roll⦠/ Straight in the hole: / Swoooooooooooosh." Alexander brings the novel-in-verse format to a fresh audience with this massively appealing package for reluctant readers, athletes especially. katrina hedee Copyright 2014 Horn Book Magazine. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2014 January #2
Basketball-playing twins find challenges to their relationship on and off the court as they cope with changes in their lives. Josh Bell and his twin, Jordan, aka JB, are stars of their school basketball team. They are also successful students, since their educator mother will stand for nothing else. As the two middle schoolers move to a successful season, readers can see their differences despite the sibling connection. After all, Josh has dreadlocks and is quiet on court, and JB is bald and a trash talker. Their love of the sport comes from their father, who had also excelled in the game, though his championship was achieved overseas. Now, however, he does not have a job and seems to have health problems the parents do not fully divulge to the boys. The twins experience their first major rift when JB is attracted to a new girl in their school, and Josh finds himself without his brother. This novel in verse is rich in character and relationships. Most interesting is the family dynamic that informs so much of the narrative, which always reveals, never tells. While Josh relates the story, readers get a full picture of major and minor players. The basketball action provides energy and rhythm for a moving story. Poet Alexander deftly reveals the power of the format to pack an emotional punch. (Verse fiction. 9-12) Copyright Kirkus 2014 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - Library Media Connection : Library Media Connection Reviews 2014 August/September
Alexander proves his versatility in his first novel in verse for middle grade audiences. Alexander uses the structure of a basketball game to divide the story into segments. Narrator Josh Bell's lyrical rap introduces his twin brother Jordan, his exact opposite in everything except love of the game. Dad is a retired professional player, and Mom is the rock that keeps the family grounded. Complications arise and each poem presents a vignette of the Bell family's life. Family conferences abound as Dad's health worsens and budding romance causes division between the twins. Dad collapses playing three on three, and is rushed to the hospital in a coma. The book is filled with hard questions, frank honesty, and profound exchanges that reveal the complexity and depth of characterization created by Alexander in his seemingly simple free verse poems. It is a story about loyalty, friendship, family, and love. Mary Jo Kelly, EdD, NBCT Librarian, The Dufrocq School, Baton Rouge, Louisiana [Edito 's Note: Available in e-book format.] Highly Recommended Copyright 2014 Linworth Publishing, Inc. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2014 January #3
Josh Bell, known on and off the court by the nickname Filthy McNasty, doesn't lack self-confidence, but neither does he lack the skills to back up his own mental in-game commentary: "I rise like a Learjetâ/ seventh-graders aren't supposed to dunk./ But guess what?/ I snatch the ball out of the air and/ SLAM!/ YAM! IN YOUR MUG!" Josh is sure that he and his twin brother, JB, are going pro, following in the footsteps of their father, who played professional ball in Europe. But Alexander (He Said, She Said) drops hints that Josh's trajectory may be headed back toward Earth: his relationship with JB is strained by a new girl at school, and the boys' father health is in increasingly shaky territory. The poems dodge and weave with the speed of a point guard driving for the basket, mixing basketball action with vocabulary-themed poems, newspaper clippings, and Josh's sincere first-person accounts that swing from moments of swagger-worthy triumph to profound pain. This verse novel delivers a real emotional punch before the final buzzer. Ages 9â12. Agent: East West Literary Agency. (Mar.)
[Page ]. Copyright 2014 PWxyz LLC - School Library Journal Reviews : SLJ Reviews 2014 March
Gr 6â10âTwins Josh and Jordan are junior high basketball stars, thanks in large part to the coaching of their dad, a former professional baller who was forced to quit playing for health reasons, and the firm, but loving support of their assistant-principal mom. Josh, better known as Filthy McNasty, earned his nickname for his enviable skills on the court: "â¦when Filthy gets hot/He has a SLAMMERIFIC SHOT." In this novel in verse, the brothers begin moving apart from each other for the first time. Jordan starts dating the "pulchritudinous" Miss Sweet Tea, and Josh has a tough time keeping his jealousy and feelings of abandonment in control. Alexander's poems vary from the pulsing, aggressive beats of a basketball game ("My shot is F L O W I N G, Flying, flutteringâ¦. ringaling and SWINGALING/Swish. Game/over") to the more introspective musings of a child struggling into adolescence ("Sit beside JB at dinner. He moves./Tell him a joke. He doesn't even smileâ¦.Say I'm sorry/but he won't listen"). Despite his immaturity, Josh is a likable, funny, and authentic character. Underscoring the sports and the fraternal tension is a portrait of a family that truly loves and supports one another. Alexander has crafted a story that vibrates with energy and heart and begs to be read aloud. A slam dunk.âKiera Parrott, School Library Journal.
[Page 132]. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. - Voice of Youth Advocates Reviews : VOYA Reviews 2014 August
Josh, nick-named Filthy McNasty, is a dred-headed basketball player. So are his bald-headed twin brother, Jordan, and his father who played in the NBA. Together, the twins dominate their middle school court with their father shouting from the bleachers and their mother, the assistant principal, trying to constrain their father. Josh relies on his family but things are falling apart. He has never known what it is like to be estranged from his twin brother, but then AlexisâMiss Sweet Teaâcomes between them.   He has never worried about his father, but starts to when he sees his dad reaching for his heart during a pickup game. Josh is growing up and crossing over, the hard way. While the story is compelling enough, what makes this verse novel excel is the poetry itself. The language paces the novel. Basketball games are succinctly captured in quick, staccato rhythms; languid free verse makes waiting for his punishment seem endless. Almost every page is an example of this synergy between diction and discourse. This book will appeal to both fans of basketball and fans of poetry. Teachers will love using this book for teaching language usage and vocabulary since much of the chapters are structured as definitions of words in the context of Josh's story. This quick read is highly recommended.âAnn Reddy Damon 5Q 5P M J S Copyright 2011 Voya Reviews.
