Sunday, 8 April 2018
Review: The Crossover - Kwame Alexander
The court is SIZZLING.
My sweat is DRIZZLING.
Stop all that quivering.
Cuz tonight I'm delivering’
12-year-old Josh and his twin Jordan have basketball in their blood. They’re kings of the court, star players for their school team. Their father used to be a champion player and they each want nothing more than to follow in his footsteps.
Both on and off the court, there is conflict and hardship which will test Josh’s bond with his brother. In this heartfelt novel in verse, the boys find that life doesn’t come with a play-book and it's not all about winning.
Visit Kwame Alexander's website for more information
Not being a teenager and knowing absolutely nothing about basketball, I think it's pretty safe to say I'm not really the target audience for this novel. I love verse novels though and seeing a video of the author reading part of the story had me curious enough to give it a try and I have to say I loved it far more than I expected to and I can see why it's won so many awards!
The story is about twelve-year-old twins who until now have been utterly obsessed with basketball, their father was a professional player who now focuses his energies on training his sons and they're both stars of their school team. It is about so much more than basketball though, it's also about growing up and growing apart, it's about finding your first love and how that changes things, it's about discovering things from your parent's past that you never knew before and it's about learning to deal with an emotional crisis.
Verse novels can be so much fun to read and this is definitely one of the better ones I've come across, the pacing is perfect and the language is clever. I think this will appeal to even the most reluctant reader and I'm handing my copy straight to my 13 year old nephew who I think will love it even more than I did!
And in case you want to watch the video I saw of Kwame Alexander reading from The Crossover here it is:
Source: Received from Andersen Press in exchange for an honest review
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