If you love H.E.R., Kehlani, or Ella Mai’s latest album Heart On My Sleeve, you gotta try The Poet X on audio!
Title: The Poet X
Author: Elizabeth Acevedo
Narrator: Elizabeth Acevedo
ISBN: 9780062662804
Publisher: Quill Tree Books
Publication date: 2018
Genre(s): Contemporary novel-in-verse
Available format(s): Print, audio. I reviewed the audio version.
Awards, honors, notable mentions: 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature winner, 2019 Carnegie Medal winner, 2019 Printz Award winner, 2019 Pura Belpre Award winner, and more
Reading level/interest level: Age 13 and up, according to Amazon
Summary: Dominican-American teen Xiomara Batista often feels trapped in her home in Harlem, where she’s usually butting heads with her mamí and where her papí never comes to her defense. Mamí’s faith and conservative values grate on Xiomara, who is beginning to question the Church, and knows her mother would berate her for her shameless desire to be noticed by boys... especially one in particular, a classmate named Aman. Xiomara’s only lifelines are her brother, “Twin,” and her best friend Caridad; even then, she struggles to feel truly heard.
When a teacher at school gently suggests that Xiomara join the slam poetry club, things change. Fearing disapproval from her mother, she cautiously attends the club in secret. Before long, she realizes that it gives her a supportive community and a platform to express herself openly. However, as the annual poetry slam approaches, Xiomara must decide whether to remain silent and conform to her mother's wishes or to embrace her voice and share her truth with the world.
About the author: Elizabeth Acevedo (she/her) is a slam poet herself with almost 20 years of experience performing; in fact, she is a National Poetry Slam Champion (GRL Mag, 2016). She was also named the Young People’s Poet Laureate in 2022 (Poetry Foundation, 2022).
The Poet X was Acevedo’s first novel. Since then, she has also published another novel-in-verse, Clap When You Land, a dual perspective story about two girls who discover they are half-sisters after their father’s death, and With the Fire on High, a prose novel about a teen mom and aspiring chef. Her first book for adults, Family Lore, was published this August. Born and raised by Dominican immigrant parents in New York City, she now lives in Washington, DC with her family (Acevedo, n.d.).
Critical review: I adore The Poet X, but only when it's read by Elizabeth Acevedo. Really, I think the audiobook is the only way to do it. I have thumbed through the print version, too, and I have to admit I didn't always understand the stylistic choices, the way the poems are broken up on the page, or punctuated as they are. But I'm sure they serve a purpose, if only to guide Acevedo's narration. The story comes to life when delivered with her passion and cadence. I especially loved the way her dynamic, expressive voice changed to show Xiomara's range of emotions, the way it softened in poems about her crush Aman, heightened in volume and fervor in poems about Xiomara's mom, and sped up in a fun, familiar way to recreate the banter between Xiomara and Caridad.
Related programming ideas: A poetry contest! One of my libraries already runs an annual poetry contest for teens; however, I think it would be great to take a page (clip?) out of Acevedo’s (audio)book and add a slam poetry element to the competition, too, for teens who prefer to express themselves aloud instead of solely on paper.
Brief booktalk: If you love H.E.R., Kehlani, or Ella Mai’s latest album Heart On My Sleeve, you gotta try The Poet X on audio! No, it’s not exactly an R&B or rap album, but author Elizabeth Acevedo’s passion for hip-hop totally comes through in her narration. In fact, Acevedo was once a lot like her protagonist Xiomara Batista, a Dominican-American teen growing up in Harlem and learning how to harness the power of her voice in slam poems to express everything she’s going through – especially when it comes to love, religion, and family.
Potential challenges: The ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom blog reported that The Poet X had been challenged in Virginia, where a couple demanded its removal from a high school curriculum because they believed it was a “frontal assault on Christian beliefs and values” (Gregory, 2021). The couple’s attorney claimed that a public school should not “use materials that explicitly disparage a particular faith tradition” (Gregory, 2021). In the end, the challenge was unsuccessful; the couple’s son was given an alternate assignment but the book was not removed from the curriculum. The book could be challenged in the future by similar readers who take issue with Xiomara’s questioning of the Catholic faith.
Reason for inclusion: I’ve listened to The Poet X twice now and feel I could easily listen to it about a hundred times more (and probably cry every time). It is just brilliant. A book this honest and genuine about adolescence and this brave to question the customs and cultures one has grown up in absolutely deserves a place in my collection!
Check this out: Elizabeth Acevedo reading from The Poet X!
And a playlist created by Acevedo, which she imagined that Xiomara was listening to!
References:
Acevedo, E. (n.d.). Meet Elizabeth. http://www.acevedowrites.com/about
GRL Mag. (2016, October 15). Elizabeth Acevedo: National poetry slam champion. GRL Mag. https://grlmag.com/2016/10/25/elizabeth-acevedo-poetess/
Jeannie. (2023, March 29). 2023 SCCLD teen poetry contest. SCCLD Blog. https://sccld.org/blogs/post/2023-sccld-teen-poetry-contest/
Poetry Foundation. (2022, September 8). Poetry foundation makes history honoring 2022 Pegasus awardees [Press release]. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/foundation/press/158595/poetry-foundation-makes-history-honoring-2022-pegasus-awardees
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