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Crossover (2014)

by Kwame Alexander(Favorite Author)

4.23 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1306469856 (ISBN13: 9781306469852)

languge

English

genre

Poetry

publisher

Harcourt Brace and Company

review 1: There's so much to like in this action-filled novel in verse about twin eight grade brothers with tremendous basketball talent. If Goodreads allowed me to give a 4.5, that would be my score for this book since it succeeds on so many levels and makes me want to fill my review with sports lingo, calling it a slam-dunk, a buzzer beater, a victory, a championship. Filled with basketball lingo and playing the game as hard as it can be played, the book is certainly sports-centered, but it is so much more than that. It's a story of family, of love, of disappointment, and affairs of the heart. Because it succeeds on so many levels, its characters become individuals for whom it is easy to care. It's easy to understand how Josh Bell feels jealous of his twin, Jordan, and his romance... more with Sweet Tea. The bonds between brothers, especially twins, are often strong, and these two have shared everything, including their basketball dreams, nurtured by their father, who played basketball a couple of decades ago. As JD seems to move further away from Josh, Josh seethes over his absence and explodes during a game. But even with his mistakes and inability to accept some of the things that occur, Josh has a facility for vocabulary and stringing together rhymes with rhythm and beats that make the book compelling for word lovers as well as for basketball fans. Once I finished the book, divided into four quarters and an overtime, I found myself reflecting as to whether basketball is like life or life is like basketball. No matter the answer, it's clear to me that this book should have high appeal for the most reluctant of readers and is a marvelous read aloud title for middle graders. Books that mix descriptions of physical prowess and the fragility of the human heart call to me, and this one surely crosses over into my own heart by reminding me of those that I have lost.
review 2: I approached this book warily, since verse novels and basketball are not my favorite interests. When I finished, I logged in to Goodreads immediately and was disappointed to discover that I missed the deadline for voting in the Best Books of 2014 semifinal round by one day. This book is about so much more than basketball, and the verse contributes strongly to the emotional impact(s) of the book. This is a story of a family of basketball lovers - a father, his twin middle-school-aged sons, Josh (the narrator) and Jordan (JB), and their mother, who also happens to be the assistant principal of their school. Basketball is central to their lives, and the rush of the play-by-play in verse is effective, but basketball is not everything. When JB falls for the new girl at school, Miss Sweet Tea, readers will feel the impact of his changing relationship with his brother on Josh. And you cannot escape the tension, and anguish that their father's illness causes the whole family. It seems unlikely to me that someone who played professional basketball in Italy briefly would be quite as famous as Chuck Bell, but it doesn't matter. I loved this book. I loved the characters. I loved the language - not only the execution of the verse format, but the charming integration of wonderful vocabulary words. I loved the parents' values and how they play out in their sons' lives. I loved the suspenseful plot that is made even more dynamic by every perfect word. less

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