The Crossover by Kwame Alexander is a story about family and basketball that is written in verse. This means that the entire novel is made up of poems. But don’t be turned off if you don’t like poetry, these poems are more like hip-hop lyrics and spoken word than ‘traditional’ poems.
The plot is easy to follow and focuses predominantly on the basketball games and lives of star athletes (and twin brothers) JB and Josh. Josh is the narrator and spends a large part of the book competing with his brother for acclaim on the court, and this competitive spirit is only heightened by their father, a former European league basketball champion who works them hard off the court. But when JB gets a girlfriend and Josh starts to realize that his dad is quietly suffering from a life threatening illness, everything changes.
This book is for you if you like sports, basketball, hip-hop/ rap or if you’ve ever felt that you were in competition with a friend or sibling.