Book Review: The Crossover, by Kwame Alexander,* published March 18, 2014, 248 pages (ebook edition), 2015 Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award Honor for children’s literature, first in a trilogy, followed by Booked and Rebound. Recommended for ages 8-12, or grades 3-7, but Pageturner high school students have enjoyed it, as well. Lexile measure 750. Please note: this book is already in the Pageturner library for a number of classes; check to see if it’s available for yours, or have your students make requests for additional purchases.

 This is a basketball novel written in verse. Unlike Jason Reynolds, who employs fewer words per page for a more contemplative impact, Kwame Alexander fills most pages, and he often uses huge and small letters in one word, even making visible “hooks’ of some words, or tumbling “slides”--it’s a roller coaster ride, reflecting the dramatic changes in its first person narrator’s own emotions, that of 12-year old Josh Bell. It often also reflects the rhythyms of the game itself.

Both Josh and his twin Jordan are 6’ tall in 7th grade.  Their dad, Charles (Chuck) “Da Man” Bell, had played for an Italian team after losing his intended spot with the Lakers, because he'd refused surgery for his patella tendonitis; he subsequently played for an Italian team into the 1990s and hasn't worked since.  Loving the game, their dad had his boys grasping a basketball along with their baby bottles at two years, and by three they were making baskets on their driveway court.  Jordan is known as “JB,” but dad has nicknamed Josh “Filthy McNasty,” after a jazz musician (1)  and a jazz band instrumental. (2)  

Although Josh doesn’t like his nickname because his teammates tease him about it, he tries for a while to make the best of it, as his father continues to use it: 
“…[E]very time I’d score, rebound, or steal a ball, Dad would jump up smiling and screamin’, That’s my boy out there. Keep it funky, Filthy! And that made me feel real good about my nickname.” Liking this nickname won't last, however, despite his trying; near the end of the book, Josh'll be pleading to know why his father insists on it.

Both boys love their dad, and their family is loving and close-knit; their mom has a PhD and is vice principal of their school. So Josh uses his nickname to call attention to his ‘wicked good’ basketball, if you will, as he is their team’s star player. Josh plays forward and thinks of his 37 locks as his “wings” when he shoots for the basket. JB plays guard and is differentiated from his twin by his short haircut. The boys have always been close. JB makes a bet with Josh, and Josh agrees to bet a single lock of his hair.  Scissors in hand when Josh loses, in his excitement JB accidentally cuts off FIVE locks, leaving a patch of bare scalp.  Josh must lose all the rest of his locks, which he will keep under his pillow.  He doesn’t hold it against JB long, although when he goes for a layup he suddenly recalls he's lost his wings, and his shot fails.

Then they see a new girl in school whom all the boys find very attractive.  Josh, who, unlike JB, actually studies for their vocabulary tests, calls her “pulchritudinous.” JB gives her his number and when she first calls, she mistakes Josh for his brother.  The very first question she asks is, “Are y’all rich?”  Mr. Bell doesn’t work, having made quite a bit of money when he played, back in the day. It’s during this conversation that Josh begins calling her Miss Sweet Tea. Soon he’ll discover Alexis is sweet only when she wants to be.  Josh begins to resent how JB has abandoned him for this girl--and he’s envious.  He yearns for a girlfriend, too.  During a game, his temper bests him and in a heated moment, he smashes JB in the face with the ball instead of passing it to him: “Today, I plan on passing the ball to JB, but when I hear him say “FILTHY, give me the ball,” I dribble over to my brother and fire a pass so hard, it levels him, the blood from his nose still shooting long after the shot- clock buzzer goes off.”  JB is taken to the hospital; thank goodness his nose isn’t broken, and he hasn’t lost any teeth.  Mom comes down hard on Josh and suspends him--from the team.  JB becomes remote and won’t accept an apology: “Try to atone day and night. Sit beside JB at dinner. He moves. Tell him a joke. He doesn’t even smile. Do his chores. He pays no attention. Say I’m sorry but he won’t listen.” Alexis works to drive the wedge between them. And now the team’s winning season is in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, Josh is increasingly worried about their dad’s health.  Mom has been stressing good nutrition, with less salt and no doughnuts, but dad keeps to his favorite, unhealthy foods and eats at least three doughnuts at a time (and burbling that what she doesn't know won't hurt her, never mind what it's doing to HIM):

“I run into Dad’s room to see what all the noise is and find him kneeling on the floor, rubbing a towel in the rug. It reeks of vomit. You threw up, Dad? I ask. Must have been something I ate. He sits up on the bed, holds his chest like he’s pledging allegiance. Only there’s no flag.”

After several months of this, he and dad are one on one on the court before a game, with an increasingly full audience. Dad’s showing off his fave move, the crossover:

“Dad winks/ Watch this/ He dips/ Sweat drips/ Left y’all/ Right y’all/ I fall/ Crowd wild/ Dad drives/ Steps strides/ Runs fast/ Hoop bound/ Stutter steps/ Lets loose/ Screams loud/ Stands still/ Breath short/ More sweat/ Grabs chest/ Eyes roll/ Ball drops/ Dad drops/ I scream.”

This is what their mom has dreaded for some time.  This is what their dad had deliberately ignored, for a long time.  They knew he had hypertension, but just as he’d refused an easy knee surgery back when, he’s refused medical care ever since. In the hospital, he’s in a coma.  Josh hates being there, especially while his team continues to play, but he stays.  Mr. Bell suffers another, massive heart attack and dies. Josh records the news clipping:

“Known for his dazzling crossover, Chuck Bell was the captain of the Italian team that won back-to-back Euroleague championships in the late nineties. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Crystal Stanley-Bell, and his twin sons, Joshua and Jordan, who recently won their first county championship. Bell was thirty-nine.” 

In keeping with the basketball theme, chapters of the book are headed like a game: Warm-Up, First Quarter, Second Quarter, Third Quarter, and Overtime. There are also 10 Rules of Basketball, which are, of course, rules for life. Josh is at first highly confident, but it’s an external kind of confidence he derives from his dad cheering him on loudly from the bleachers, as well as from the support of his brother and the rest of the team. He becomes vulnerable when he thinks he’s lost his twin, and further, when he begins to worry about their dad’s health.  Eventually he has to develop an internal confidence that will wear better as he becomes an adult. The crossover move in basketball is a critical symbol, too. When a player suddenly switches dribbling from one hand to the other, (s)he forces an opponent to switch footing, which is awkward at best and at worst, can cause ankle breaks. Life throws ‘curveballs’ at us, too, but Alexander’s poetry reminds the reader that life also has its own rhythm, an ebb and flow that allows us to recoup and continue.

“The Crossover is intentionally comprised of different types of poetry including free verse, haiku, list poems, rap and rhyme,” to engage even the most reluctant readers. Read more at: https://jasontaylorfoundation.com/news/whatshappeningwednesday-the-crossover-by-kwame-alexander/   

“Alexander’s verse novel utilizes multiple poetic forms (free verse, rap, concrete, tanka, ode) and devices (rhyme, rhythm, anaphora, lyricism, metaphor, simile) in order to focus on the strong family ties and the significance of language in the life of Josh Bell. Alexander uses free verse in a variety of different poems to push the narrative thread along. Additionally, several poems utilize rhyme and rhythm that mirrors rap or hip-hop lyrics, while others use concrete poetry and irregular font size and placement to emulate movements during basketball games.” Follow up with: http://versenovelreview.blogspot.com/2016/01/kwame-alexanders-crossover.html

This book's essential truths hit me as hard as that ball hit JB, as my husband of 33 years, who was also Black, did exactly what Da Man Bell did.  Another man who seemed larger than life, he, too, had a massive heart attack after ignoring hypertension and diabetes for 14 years, and then died three horrific months later, of complications due to Covid, in September, of 2022.

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* “Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, publisher, Emmy® Award-winning producer, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of 40 books, including This is the Honey, Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated, the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson. Kwame is also the Executive Producer, Showrunner, and Writer of the Emmy-award winning series The Crossover, based on his Newbery-Medal winning novel of the same name, which premiered on Disney+ in April 2023. The series was produced in partnership with LeBron James' SpringHill Company and Big Sea Entertainment, Kwame's production company that is dedicated to creating innovative, highly original children’s and family entertainment. Other current projects in development at Big Sea include America’s Next Great Author, the groundbreaking reality television series for writers, as well as an animated series in production with GBH based on his beloved children’s book Acoustic Rooster. Kwame was recently appointed as the Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts for Chautauqua Literary Arts, and also serves as their Inaugural​ Writer-in-Residence. A regular contributor to NPR’s Morning Edition, Kwame is the creator and host of the Why Fathers Cry podcast featuring conversations about love and parenting and loss, with fathers and sons. He regularly shares his passion for literacy, books and the craft of writing around the world at events like the Chautauqua Lecture Series, the Edinburgh Book Festival, Aspen Ideas, and the Global Literacy Symposium in Ghana, where he opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana. https://kwamealexander.com/about/kwame/Bio/

“Kwame Alexander received a standing ovation for his 2024 Commencement Address to graduates of American University's School of Communication and School of Education.

The #1 New York Times bestelling author and award-winning author of over 40 books was also awarded an honorary doctorate from American University, in recognition of his profound impact on literature and education. Ceremonies were held on Saturday, May 11, 2024, in Washington, DC.”
 https://kwamealexander.com/

(1) The musician was born as Wilfried Bartsch, and he, too, had a brother, named Wolfgang. The brothers were born in Berlin and moved to the U.S. in 1956, where they legally changed their names after changing the Melody Lounge on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip to Filthy McNasty’s. “The bar became a popular hangout for Evil Knievel and Phyllis Diller, Elvis Presley and Mick Jagger and other celebrities such as Little Richard and John Wayne who appreciated McNasty’s ban on photographers.”  Later he founded the rock club FM Station. “F.M. Station was the premier live music venue of the San Fernando Valley and was the favorite watering hole for many of the music industry’s shiniest of stars, and was often coveted as their ‘nasty’ little secret,” writes Gerry North on Parousia Buff. “On any given night, you could find the members of Motley Crue, Kiss, Guns and Roses, Great White, Metallica, Motorhead etc. followed around by local hopefuls striving for a grab at the proverbial brass ring known as a record deal.”  Despite the name, McNasty was known as a kind and decent man.  He died in 2016. https://wehoonline.com/2016/04/23/filthy-mcnasty-icon-of-the-old-sunset-strip-has-died/

(2) And here’s the instrumental piece. You might want to listen to it as Josh goes through changes: https://youtu.be/Jnc-y2D5RBg?si=2V6X-92qn8OlMB-c

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