Kwame Alexander The Crossover Lessons

In The Crossover by Kwame Alexander, life lessons are told through the use of an extended metaphor. At first glance, The Crossover appears to be a book about basketball. However, basketball is just the vehicle to carry this story and keep it moving. Through the use of poems, this verse novel tells the story of twins, Josh and Jordan Bell, as they navigate adolescents. Throughout the novel, tremendous growth is seen in the characters, particularly Josh. The book is sectioned into “quarters” just like a basketball game. By the time the reader gets to the 4th quarter, emotions and tensions are running high. One particular poem that exhibits this tension is “Mom, since you asked, I’ll tell you why I’m so angry.” This poem shows Josh’s anger and frustration over his father being in the hospital. At this point in the novel, Josh’s dad is still alive; however, the father’s prognosis is not good.

In addition, this book succeeds in terms of depicting real life situations to young children. As presented in the story, Reed’s father lost his job; thus, causing him to move back in with

“I wasn’t sure how I liked my cousin warning me not to hurt someone. I wasn’t that guy. What do you think I’m going to do her? The question came out annoyed because I was. Maggie’s frown became pinched. Ivy Hollis. Last I checked you were dating her. Then she turned her all-knowing, haughty ass around and walked away. Well damn. I guess she was right. I couldn’t get to know Willa and keep my

Learning is a strong aspect in the novel. The characters learn who they really are and choose their own path. Gene, in the beginning was a character of self doubt, jealousy and greed. He never took a step back to realize that he had traits that others wished they had. Nothing was ever good enough for him, not even his best friend. He had to learn who he should be just like his companion Finny did. Finny chose to be a man of forgiveness, loyalty and strength even before the clock ran out of time. He truly did succeed in shaping Gene to be a good person. And Finny learned about himself as he held Gene’s hand along the rocky road. Gene started to learn about himself when he said in the novel on page 59, “Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he. I couldn’t stand this.” Gene was finally realizing that he was not going to be the best at every single thing he does, but that he has someone who can be the tour guide for him in his own life and who can show him who he really should be. This exact situation happens in our modern day lives. We see the things and characteristics that others have and we never take a step back to take in and learn that we are each different and we all have strengths and we all have weaknesses. Everyone shouldn’t be greedy for the ear to ear smile we “don’t have” or the blond hair that we can’t have. But what we can get, that we may not have is the ability to be accepting or forgiving. We can learn to acquire these traits as we learn from example and try these traits on.

She smoothes over Sofia's betrayal of the family, her running away and fighting with her father, by calling it lucky that she ended up with such a loving husband and a beautiful blonde baby. Her story about the thieves who got caught the night Sofia was born similarly reflects her desire to look on the brighter side of things. She needs this positive attitude to craft positive family stories out of unfortunate events.

The book That was Then, This Is Now is about to really good friends Bryon and Mark starting to go their separate ways. Bryon was a 16 year old hustler who lived in a hood. His mother was poor and she had adopted his best friend Mark. Mark was an illegitimate who was adopted by new parents that got in a drunken fight and killed each other. Mark was a thief, and he always got away with everything that he possibly could do. Teen kids in there element who thought they could rule the world, everything was theirs and that nothing could possibly go wrong. They did everything bad together smoke, drink, jump kids for their money, steal, skip school, take drugs and get into gang brawls.

Growing up as a young black male has many struggles. M.K. Asante’s Buck is an eye opener to the real world of life growing up as a young black male. Malo is the main character in this book. His older brother, Uzi, is in an out of trouble constantly, mother has mental issues and his dad isn’t really supportive of them.as in their family struggles. Malo feels that he is forced to be independent but his mother doesn’t fully agree with some of the decisions that he makes. With his family falling apart, Malo feels that he has to fight for himself to survive in this world.

In the memoir, the author uses the literary device pathos to support her purpose. The author summarizes Adele’s life growing up with a quote. The quote said, “It wasn’t easy for a single mum Penny and young Adele, but what lacked in space, money, and the presence of a father figure, they made up for with love” (James 12). This quote explains how Adele and her mom lacked a fair amount things and they did not have an easy life, but the important thing was that they had love. The quote uses pathos because it will make readers pity or sympathize with Adele because of her parent’s separation. Also, to emphasize

Instead of living in fear to be unique and striving to do things others could not. In Priscilla and the Wimps I think the author did a great job an example of fate and karma as well as displaying someone helping someone else in need. I think that if you see someone in need who cannot help themselves you should lend them a hand which is what Pricilla did when she helped Melvin. In moose and Sparrow, moose picked on Cecil based on his appearance and took it a little too far without getting to know Cecil's abilities and limits. Moose ended up pushing Cecil's limits and faced the consequences. Moose did not even see it coming, as a matter of fact no one did. In On the Sidewalk Bleeding we learn that your personal identity is more important than your gangs identity. Andy unfortunately learned this the hard way and ended up losing his life because of this and all he could do before his death was regret his mistakes. I think that if your friend tells you a secret that could potentially harm them it is your job to get them the help that they need as their friend. Lori learns this the hard way when her friend Margret tells her a secret. day after day the secret was eating her

Two kids with the same name, similar experiences, and circumstances grow up to become two different people. Why did one end up in jail for rest of his life; while the other became a man of many accomplishments? What factors were involved in the success and failure of these two boys that caused a perfect storm of bad circumstances? As the author puts it, “Our stories are obviously specific to our two lives, but I hope they will illuminate the crucial inflection points in every life, the sudden moments of decision where our paths diverge and our fates are sealed. It’s unsettling to know how little separates us from another life altogether” (Moore xi). I aim to dissect the problems and elements that played a role in changing these boy’s lives.

Jamal is a black kid from the Bronx, William is an accomplished writer. They let these differences show but find a mutual love for writing through it. Jamal and William come from very different walks of life and have many differences, but when these many differences surface and were able to be compared, William and Jamal actually find similarities and create a strong, trustful relationship. Jamal is the new kid at school and Claire knows the school quite well. This difference surfaces and leads to Claire showing Jamal around the school.

This reading made the reader question to who Kwame Anthony Appiah was presenting these ideas and respond to this topic with our own personal views. Discussion similar to this reading that discuss controversial issues, are that ones that make the reader dive in and reflect on their beliefs and values and how those views and morals are not the same for the everyone in the world.

She had to accept the fact that what her mother did wasn’t something that she could control, however what she could control was being a much more open minded and loving daughter. And through this change in thinking she was able to “[experience] a tremendous sense of growth” which allowed her to let go of her bitterness and to let the relationship grow and prosper once more. The point she makes with this is that, even though blame is an effective defense mechanism against risk and embarrassment, that it creates a whole new set of problems. That only through a growth mindset can one effectively identify problem areas in relationships and work together with one’s partner to fix them.

The story, Bifocal, written by Deborah Ellis and Eric Walters is a story of two high school boys who contribute two different perspectives to the story. The novel shows the life of a high school student and the racist comments and bullying they might experience. People can have a vast influence on others in life, positively and negatively, and can promote tolerance, acceptance and inclusiveness. Jay, the protagonist, was affected both positively and negatively by a variety of people throughout the book; Kevin’s ignorance, Zana’s determination and Haroon’s forgiving nature all set examples for what Jay should model himself to be in the future.

She excused herself in a hurry, the chair almost tipping over with how she leapt out of her chair. The heels she wore to graduation loudly clicked on the floor of the restaurant as she locked herself into the bathroom for the evening. Usually she would have shrugged off her rude comment and went back and joined the conversation as if nothing had been said, but Ivy felt guilty and upset. It didn’t make her feel better to sit on the lid of the toilet either as she buried her face into her hands. Her comment was something akin to a mistake, she should have just said she was leaving and going to college, that’s what her statement should have been instead of; “I’m afraid I lack an answer”. While those might have been her internal thoughts, she shouldn’t have lashed out like that on the poor unsuspecting brunette.