Friday, July 8, 2016

The Crossover


The Crossover

Author: Kwame Alexander
Pages: 240
Lexile: 750
Genre: Poetry, Young Adult Fiction
Rating: 5/5 Stars

Once you start reading this book, you won’t be able to stop. “The Crossover” is a amazing action-packed combo of realistic fiction and sports. This book takes place in junior high, the second most known place for drama, (the first is high school). Josh, the main character (A.K.A Filthy Mcnasty), is a fantastic basketball player who plays on his junior high team. But when his twin brother starts to hang out more with someone different than Josh, Josh feels like he’s put aside. Of course, how could I forget to mention Josh’s twin brother’s name, Jordan. Although most people call him JB, he’s like basically Josh’s equal in basketball.
The story starts of with Josh and JB scoring points in their basketball game. Later on in the week, there’s a new girl who starts there, and Josh can tell that JB is definitely interested in her. Then at one of the games, the new girl comes to watch, and JB notices, and then the next day, JB walks into lunch with her and sits with her, leaving Josh all alone. One day Josh overhears his mom arguing with his dad about going to the doctor and mentioning something about everyone in their family history has come down with some kind of heart disease. But when he tries to tell JB, he won’t listen, because he’s too busy on the phone with the new girl. Then when JB starts to hang out more and more with the girl, and eventually starts dating her, he starts making Josh angry and frustrated. Then at one basketball game, Josh finally snaps and does something so terrible, that JB doesn’t talk to him for almost the rest of the book. Later, at a park, while JB hung out with his girlfriend, Josh played a game against his dad, but then it lead to Josh’s dad collapsing and being rushed to the hospital. While Josh’s dad is still in bed, his suspension from the basketball team has gone away which means he can play. But rather than go play, (which he definitely wanted to do more than stay in a hospital waiting for nothing to happen), he stayed in the hospital with his dad. Then on the day of his championship in basketball, Josh’s dad tells him to go play and then sends JB to watch. While Josh won the championship, it came at a terrible price. Then after the incident which changes his life, Josh starts thinking in a much bigger way leading him to see that what he did to his brother was wrong.This leads us into one of the themes of the book. Be careful about what choices you make because good choices lead to good results while bad choices lead to bad results and you don’t want to make the wrong choice.

I loved how the book was written, and the way each line flowed into the next like a fluid. Plus, I love how the author put the words on the page in different ways so he could emphasize his point. The only thing I don’t like was how short it was, because I really wanted to keep reading but there was nothing more to read. People who love raps, rhythm, poems, basketball, or sports in general would love this book. Actually, anyone would like this book but if you like reading those kind of books, than you absolutely will LOVE this book!

Contributed by Phani Chintakunta

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