The Crossover

Alexander, Kwame. The Crossover. Harcourt Brace & Company, 2014.

Josh and Jordan are twins who love basketball. The Crossover is Josh's story, talking about basketball and living up to expectations and loss. Told in blank-verse, this book covers a lot of ground - a basketball story, a story with diverse characters, and a story written in poetry. This book would be an easy one to recommend to teens and tweens.

Recommended for: teens, tweens
Red Flags: minor violence
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Read-Alikes: The Weight of Water, Dark Sons,

Brown Girl Dreaming

Woodson, Jacqueline. Brown Girl Dreaming. Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014.

Woodson grew up both in South Carolina and New York, different places with very different cultures and issues of race. With a foot in each place, Woodson tells the story of her childhood and the things she loved about living in the city and about living with her grandmother in the deep south.

Wow. A memoir/autobiography written by a young adult author and the book is written in blank verse. There's a lot to love here. The lyrical quality of the writing makes this book very easy to read, and the poetic style will draw fans of Ellen Hopkins and other authors of novels in verse. I shelved this book in the biographies, but it doesn't spend much time on the shelf. Strongly recommended.

Recommended for: middle grade, tweens, teens, fans of Woodson's other work
Red Flags: racist language (used appropriately for the time/place)
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Dark Sons, October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard, Miracle's Boys

Rumble

Hopkins, Ellen. Rumble. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2014.

Matthew doesn't believe in god.  He hasn't since his brother committed suicide after incessant bullying by his classmates. Matthew's girlfriend is very religious, and Matthew is dealing with the overwhelming loss of his brother as well as the flak he is getting from his teachers and parents because of his vehement insistence that no god could possibly have created such a terrible world.

This book, like much of Hopkins's work, runs the gamut of difficult issues.  We have anti-gay bullying, a kid who is angry at everyone and making everyone wonder if he will bring a gun or worse to school, a girlfriend who has let her religious beliefs blind her to what is going on around her, etc. This is not an easy book to read, but books "about kids with real problems" are very popular in my school library, so as long as they are relatively free of red flags, I try to get as many of them as I can. I would describe this story as "messy," but the lives of my students are also messy, so that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Recommended for: older teens, fans of novels in verse
Red Flags: language, discussion of suicide and school violence
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

The Language Inside

Thompson, Holly. The Language Inside. Delacorte, 2013.

Emma's family lived in Japan for most of her life, but when Emma's mom is diagnosed with breast cancer, her family moves back to New England so her mom can be treated at a hospital while the kids stay with family members. Everyone expects Emma to love being back in the States, but Emma misses Japan and wishes she were there to help her friends clean up after the earthquake. Emma volunteers at a hospital where she meets a woman who can only communicate with her eyes. Together they use poetry to open up and express themselves.

This book is written in free verse, which I don't usually appreciate since it seems that some authors use free verse to make their book different or cool, when actually they're still writing in prose, just with oddly broken lines. This book is no exception. I would have loved this story in standard prose format, but in free verse it seemed a bit inaccessible. The references to Japanese culture were interesting, as was Emma's relationship with the Cambodian boy that she meets. I would have liked to have heard more about how the dance to raise money for Japan went over, and I would have liked to get to know the other characters better. It wasn't a bad story at all; it just wasn't great.

Recommended for: fans of free verse; people interested in learning about Asian cultures

Red Flags: none

Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard

Newman, Leslea. October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard. Candlewick, 2012.

From Goodreads: "On the night of October 6, 1998, a gay twenty-one-year-old college student named Matthew Shepard was lured from a Wyoming bar by two young men, savagely beaten, tied to a remote fence, and left to die. Gay Awareness Week was beginning at the University of Wyoming, and the keynote speaker was Lesléa Newman, discussing her book Heather Has Two Mommies. Shaken, the author addressed the large audience that gathered, but she remained haunted by Matthew’s murder. October Mourning, a novel in verse, is her deeply felt response to the events of that tragic day. Using her poetic imagination, the author creates fictitious monologues from various points of view, including the fence Matthew was tied to, the stars that watched over him, the deer that kept him company, and Matthew himself. More than a decade later, this stunning cycle of sixty-eight poems serves as an illumination for readers too young to remember, and as a powerful, enduring tribute to Matthew Shepard’s life."

Wow. I almost wish I was still teaching so I could use this book during Poetry Month. Not only has Newman written some beautiful poems, but she also used a wide variety of poetic forms and styles. Wow. This book was so amazingly excellent. I'm undecided about whether I should donate this book so others can share in it, or if I should just keep it under my pillow.