Tyler Reynolds's Blog - Posts Tagged "the-crossover"
What is a Crossover?
If you don't know, google it. Watch a couple video examples, and you're set for this basketball-related book: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. I'm not much of a sports, guy, but I LOVED it!
Josh and Jordan Bell are star players on their b-ball team. But the book is not really about the big tournament. I've noticed that the best books are like that--they are not about the big game or the big fight or the big competition. They are about what's going on inside the hero.
Josh has got some stuff to deal with: his brother has a girlfriend, his dad is sick, and Josh has just screwed up big-time in front of everybody.
Here's the weird thing. We know what Josh is thinking because he thinks it all in poetry (not the rhyming kind). That means every page tells something he feels in a very small space. The book is a super-fast read, and you don't have to deal with paragraphs of description. It's like that crossover video plays in your head while you read the lines and you feel it along with Josh. I like a poetry book...who would've thought?
This book has tons of awards, so you might want to save it to read for some required reading for school (you can read the whole thing in an afternoon). But, if you're using it for the Dude-A-Rrific Summer Reading Bingo, it fits these squares: CAN YOU SEE IT? (it's all in your head, bro), THEY TALK WEIRD (all in poetry), JUST DO IT (may inspire free-throw practice), CURRENT EVENTS (there's a driving-while-black police stop).
You can download and print the bingo card for this year at the Dudes website: https://emilykayjohnson.com/TheDudesC...
Josh and Jordan Bell are star players on their b-ball team. But the book is not really about the big tournament. I've noticed that the best books are like that--they are not about the big game or the big fight or the big competition. They are about what's going on inside the hero.
Josh has got some stuff to deal with: his brother has a girlfriend, his dad is sick, and Josh has just screwed up big-time in front of everybody.
Here's the weird thing. We know what Josh is thinking because he thinks it all in poetry (not the rhyming kind). That means every page tells something he feels in a very small space. The book is a super-fast read, and you don't have to deal with paragraphs of description. It's like that crossover video plays in your head while you read the lines and you feel it along with Josh. I like a poetry book...who would've thought?
This book has tons of awards, so you might want to save it to read for some required reading for school (you can read the whole thing in an afternoon). But, if you're using it for the Dude-A-Rrific Summer Reading Bingo, it fits these squares: CAN YOU SEE IT? (it's all in your head, bro), THEY TALK WEIRD (all in poetry), JUST DO IT (may inspire free-throw practice), CURRENT EVENTS (there's a driving-while-black police stop).
You can download and print the bingo card for this year at the Dudes website: https://emilykayjohnson.com/TheDudesC...
