The Crossover: A Newbery Award Winner

Kwame Alexander

Mar 2014 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

Series streaming now on Disney+, with executive producers including NBA great LeBron James!

The Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award–winning middle grade bestseller! Basketball and heartache share the court in this slam-dunk novel in verse.

“With a bolt of lightning on my kicks . . . The court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. ’Cuz tonight I’m delivering,” raps twelve-year-old Josh Bell. Thanks to their dad, he and his twin brother, Jordan, are kings on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood—he’s got mad beats, too, which help him find his rhythm when it’s all on the line.

In this fast and furious middle grade novel of family and brotherhood from Kwame Alexander, Josh and Jordan must come to grips with growing up on and off the court to realize breaking the rules comes at a terrible price, as their story's heart-stopping climax proves a game-changer for the entire family.

Ratings and reviews

My teacher has been reading this book to my class and this book is sooo..., Interesting already it's so good that I'm the one who's flipping through out the pages to see what's going to happen next. If you want to read a book interesting, not boring, or wasteing your time this book "CrossOver" is just what you need. Thank you, Kwame Alexander for this great and inspiring book keep writing more and NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR GIFT!!!

am always a sucker for verse books. Add in the blurb and I was hooked. I got lucky and it was available from my library while I was browsing through. I did take a couple pages to get into the flow and style with the capitalization and spacing. It'd been so long since I read a verse book! But once I was in, I was a goner. I finished it as quick as I could. I can def. see why it's so highly praised and won awards. The only little thing for me was the ending wasn't as conclusive and satisfying as I'd like. I'm the type to want all the answers on the page. But it's really great, even with my hang up.

Awesome Book for adolescent males, especially those struggling with poetry and poetic form. Reads like prose!!! I recommend this book to every middle school teacher on the planet. This book is a page turner and contains all the elements necessary to suck readers in and keep them reading. This book ends before the reader wants it to, but I think everyone will enjoy the ups and downs. Alexander's writing deserved the awards. He leaves his reader wanting more. Personally, I hope he writes several more just like this one, several for young female readers. This book has no downside as far as I am concerned. I have recommended this text to several male students and they enjoyed it immensely.

About the author

Kwame Alexander is a poet, an educator, and the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty-five books, including his Newbery Medal–winning middle grade novel The Crossover. Some of his other works include Booked, which was longlisted for the National Book Award; The Playbook: 52 Rules to Aim, Shoot, and Score in This Game Called Life; Swing; the picture books How to Read a Book and How to Write a Poem (coauthored with Deanna Nikaido), both illustrated by Melissa Sweet; and The Undefeated, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Caldecott Medal, a Newbery Honor, and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. He is a regular contributor to NPR’s Morning Edition, currently serving as their poet ambassador. He lives in Virginia with his family. Visit his website at kwamealexander.com.

Dawud Anyabwile is an Emmy Award–winning artist, illustrator, and cocreator of the groundbreaking comic book series Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline. Anyabwile has worked with companies such as Cartoon Network, Turner Studios, NBA TV, Nickelodeon, and many others as a character designer, storyboard artist, illustrator, and concept artist. Anyabwile illustrated the graphic novel adaptation of the New York Times bestselling novel Monster by Walter Dean Myers. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Anyabwile now volunteers, teaches art classes to young students, and gives lectures when he isn't working on his art.Instagram @brothermancomix