The Crossover

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

 Awards: John Newbery Medal

FOCUS

The Crossover is a fictional narrative poem or a verse novel.

OVERVIEW OF THE AUTHOR

 

“Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and New York Times Bestselling author of 21 books,” (African-American Literature Book Club).  Alexander created a “Book-in-a-Day” workshop run by students to publish their own books run by a non-profit.  He would go to the lowest performing schools and give them insight and empowered them to write their own stories.  He leads organizations that builds libraries and empowers teachers in Ghana.  Alexander owns publishing companies as well (African Amer…).   He is known for his poetry and his transformation of young people’s dislike of literature to an appreciation and a contributor to the art.

SUMMARY 

The Crossover is a collection of poems that form into a story about two young high school brothers falling in love with basketball under their basketball star Dad’s encouragement.  Each “chapter” in the book are not “chapters,” but “quarters” like in the game of basketball.  JB and Jordan are fun-loving boys raised by a mom who is a Principal at their school and a father who used to play professional basketball.  Due to a knee injury and his father refusing to have surgery, their father enjoys his life raising his boys in the same love for basketball.

The poems portray two, popular among their peers, African-American, intelligent, athletic fun-loving brothers doing life with each other and being strongly influenced by amazing parents.  There are many conversations the boys have with their parents that foster who they are as a person.  Dad gets on their level and offers them life advice in basketball phrases constantly.

Throughout the book we learn that Dad has always refused Doctors and is struggling with his health.

“In the car I ask Dad if going to the doctor will kill him.  He tells me he doesn’t trust doctors,” (Alexander, p.123).  During this time JB gets a girlfriend and doesn’t spend the same amount of time with Josh like before.  Josh gets jealous and eventually throws the basketball at his brother to hurt him, leading him to the hospital.  After that incident, there is an extreme strain on the relationship and the reader can tell by what is talked about in each poem.

Josh feels what most adolescents feel and expresses it through the poems.  In the end of the poems, the boys are faced with the worst suffering they can imagine, when their father dies.  He gets very sick and has multiple heart attacks.  A beautiful legacy is left when the poem ends with the boys still playing basketball and still being the amazing men the father has taught them to be.  “A loss is inevitable, like snow in winter.  True champions learn to dance through the storm,” (p.230).

AUTHOR’S LANGUAGE

The Crossover uses figurative language, dialogue and music in language to capture and engage the reader.  Josh is just discussing his life through the story, but as he talks about his thoughts, feelings and actions, there are “layers of meaning” to what is actually taking place within him (Children’s Literature Briefly, p. 27).  “Dialogue reveals character. When a person’s mouth opens, truth emerges about personality, motives, desires, prejudices, and feelings,” (Children’s… p. 27).  The many conversations between Josh with his brother, with his parents and also JB and his girlfriend portray a very descriptive picture of who they are as people.  The Crossover is a poem which uses music in language with  “repeat tones, establish patterns, provide a cadence, and add variety,” (Children’s… p. 28).  This story is not just a novel, but a verse novel poem.

INSTRUCTIONAL LESSONS

This book would be an amazing book to introduce the use of language to middle or high schoolers. It would spark their interest for poetry because it relates to them so specifically at their level.  They in return can create poems and play with words like Kwame Alexander.

MENTOR TEXT

This book would be an amazing book for many lessons.  It can teach hard work and determination, a study against the stereotypes of African-Americans, a study on the different genres of poetry, character development and used to relate to issues faced by adolescents today.  It can be used to compare and contrast other forms of poetry.

ENRICHMENT

The Crossover would help children not place the stereotype of black people being raised in struggle.  They were raised by very motivated and smart individuals who strove after very demanding careers.  This in return allowed the boys to strive after good grades, become excellent basketball players and strive to be like their parents.  It was a very healthy family.  It also would encourage hope to strive for greatness. It would help them learn to deal with challenges by being relatable to the boys in the story and learning to overcome them.

How are family relationships depicted?

This family is a very strong and amazing family unit.  Parents are very involved in their childs’ lives.  Not only involved in what they do, but also for their well-being.  There are many examples of them giving them advice or correcting their attitudes to help them become the best person they can be.  “The sky is your limit, sons.  Always shoot for the sun and you will shine,” (Alexander, p. 66).  There is a lot of laughter between the four of them showing how close they are.  On page 41, the poem is titled “Mom doesn’t like us eating out” and shows the experience of them going to a Chinese restaurant and them joking around with each other.  The father is very involved and aware of their progress in basketball and practices with them on a regular basis.  The mother provides very strict consequences for Josh when he injured his brother. There is a comment about how Mom will be upset if they get a C grade.  How would they get into Duke?   She continues to correct him and teaches responsibility for his actions.  They both are curious about JB’s girlfriend and ask her to come over.  JB and Josh are brothers with a common gift and love for basketball.  Even though they have different basketball positions, they play very well together.  It is their passion and they share that with their father.  When Dad is suffering with his health, everyone shows so much concern.  This book is a beautiful display of strong family relationships.

Do you notice tokenism — are all minorities depicted as genuine individuals with distinctive characteristics?

There is no tokenism in The Crossover, but just the opposite.  African-Americans are the minority in most places in The United States.  Each character in the book is celebrated for their genuine characteristic.  The mom has her Doctorate and is a Principal, Dad was a professional basketball player, the boys want to go to an Iv League college and the family is very healthy.  This book does not use the general white man succeeding in life, but uses African Americans as the leaders in this story.  Each person is celebrated for their humor, their appearance and the way they communicate.  Dad’s stubbornness with Doctors is very relatable to any man in our country.  These are people who the readers will look up to and want to be like.

Does the determination and drive for becoming great athletes amongst the brothers derive strictly from their parents values and teachings?   How might two brothers without amazing parents like this reach the same successes as JB and Josh?