The Crossover
by Kwame Alexander
Summary
Josh Bell is twelve, plays basketball with his twin brother Jordan, and narrates the whole novel in verse. He calls himself Filthy McNasty, he can dunk, and his father was a professional player in Europe whose knees ended his career and who now refuses to see a doctor about anything.
The trouble starts when Jordan gets a girlfriend. Josh, who has never had to share his brother with anyone, handles it badly, and one moment of temper on the court sets everything after it in motion. Meanwhile their father keeps saying he is fine.
The verse is the reason to read it. Alexander shifts form constantly, from tight rhyming runs to lines that scatter down the page when a play breaks open, and he uses typography the way a sportscaster uses volume. Vocabulary words arrive as their own poems, defined and then used. It is closer to performance than to page poetry, and it is best read out loud.
It is short, and readers who have decided they do not like poetry finish it in an afternoon without noticing what they have read. It is also considerably sadder than its cover suggests, and the ending lands hard on readers of any age. If you are handing it to a child, know that it goes to a serious place and does not soften it. It works extremely well for reluctant readers of ten and up, and particularly for boys who have decided that books are not for them, which is a large part of why teachers and librarians reach for it so often.
Historical Context & Significance
The Crossover was published in 2014 and won the Newbery Medal in 2015, together with a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, and it did something the Newbery had rarely done by giving the medal to a novel written entirely in verse.
That mattered beyond this book. The verse novel had been growing as a form in writing for young readers, and the medal effectively confirmed it as a serious one rather than a gimmick, opening the way for a run of successful books in verse in the years that followed.
Alexander has since built a substantial career as an author and advocate for reading, added companion volumes about the Bell family, and seen The Crossover adapted as a television series. It remains one of the most reliable recommendations for a child who says they do not like books.