A Book Review to Make Kwame Alexander Proud

A Book Review to Make Kwame Alexander Proud

The 2015 Newbery Medal winner was recently announced, and what a delight to find that the honored book is the gripping, dynamic, and verse-form Crossover by Kwame Alexander. “A cool dude,” as his website calls him, Mr. Alexander is a prolific writer and a multitalented individual who spends a great deal of time “doing the write thing” (also quoting his website!). His many books have long been admired, and many readers agree that Crossover stands out among them for its unique voice, engaging narration, clever artistry, and keenly drawn characterizations.

Because student interaction with text can be such a powerful thing, we recently asked Kiley, a sixth-grade student from Virginia, to share her response to Crossover with us. Kiley is an avid blogger who maintains her own website, www.icannotlivewithoutbooks.com. There she shares her response to literature, life, and whatever inspires her. Kiley met our book challenge in the most clever of ways: in verse. Take a look at Kiley’s response and let us know what you think. Perhaps her work can inspire similar responses to great literature among your students!

Your Turn!

What do you think of the Newbery selection? What do your students think?

Author bio

Dona Herweck Rice, Former Editor-in-Chief for TCM

Dona Herweck Rice, former editor-in-chief for Teacher Created Materials, currently serves as an educational consultant in the areas of writing, nonfiction, fiction, and poetry for children. Dona has extensive teaching experience and has authored single titles for the education market, for grades Pre•K –12 across all content areas, including language arts, science, social studies, mathematics, and the creative arts, including many titles in the TIME For Kids Nonfiction Readers, Science Readers, Reader's Theater, and Early Childhood Themes lines.