Reviews of crossover book8/28/2023 ![]() So partially spurred by this book, I went to my doctor. 39! That’s only a couple of years older than me! And I realized with some horror that I had been ignoring my own weird chest tightenings that were happening more and more frequently throughout the Fall. (I mean you are not supposed to like it when a protagonist’s beloved father dies.) What was honestly the most surprising to me was when in his obituary they mentioned that the dad was 39. But ( again big spoiler) that he had a second heart attack shortly there after and died was honestly a big surprise that I didn’t see coming, and I didn’t particularly like it. Obviously, he had the heart attack, that wasn’t a particularly big surprise with all the foreshadowing. One of the things that the book did was to point out how good of parents Josh and Jordan had, and their father was about to have a heart attack on every other page, but just refused to go to a doctor. ![]() The part of the book that frustrated me the most was the refusal of the father to go see a doctor about his heart. This is going to have a number of big spoilers in it, so fair warning, skip this section before you read the book. The whole effect was to give the protagonist-narrator a very distinctive voice and the novel a very immersive experience. I didn’t listen to the audiobook, but I imagine it was powerful (after a quick listen to the sample, it struck me that the narrator chose to read it slower than I imagined it in my mind, probably to make sure that you could catch every word). What was interesting was the graphic design layout of the words, enlarging and dropping them down to mimic the movement of the ball, or using font size, boldness, or italics to emphasize the cadence and rhythm of the speaker. The artistry of the language was the most impressive part of the book. The language and the art of the poetry in this book is part rap, part spoken word, part free verse. On and off the court, the brothers compete against and with each other, struggling to work together as team and family in the face of romance and stardom and possibilities of making it big. ![]() ![]() They are sons of a semi-pro player who had a career in Italy, (Evan tells me this is reminiscent of Kobe Bryant who grew up partially in Italy when his father played there), but his career was cut short by injury. 2015 Newbery winner, The Crossover by Kwame Alexander, is a free verse novel about two African American middle-school, basketball-loving, twin brothers. ![]()
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