The Poet X, by Elizabeth Acevedo

 Savvy's Reviews

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The Poet X - Elizabeth Acevedo

A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand the world around her and her relationship to it. Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking until she discovers her own voice. 

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself.

So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less speaking her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

Oh gosh… where to begin!!! This verse novel is uniquely relatable, heart wrenching, real, honest, provocative, raw and beautiful. I have to say that listening to this book via audiobook might be the only way to go. Hearing Acevedo bringing her words into the world and giving them so much life was truly captivating. 

There is a battle going on within these pages centered around the difference between loyalty to family and loyalty to one’s self. This amazing novel is all about becoming who you really are and who you are really meant to be. It’s not only a coming of age novel but a becoming of self expedition. 

Savvy B. is an avid Young Adult fiction superfan. 

Savvy's Reviews will be archived here, so you can catch up on all her thoughts on her latest reads.

The Black Kids, by Christina Hammonds Reed

 Savvy's Reviews

Not sure you want to dig into that new book? Let Savvy do the hard work for you! Here's her latest review!

The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed

This coming-of-age debut novel explores issues of race, class, and violence through the eyes of a wealthy black teenager whose family gets caught in the vortex of the 1992 Rodney King Riots. Ashley Bennett and her friends are living the charmed life. It’s the end of senior year. Everything changes one afternoon in April, when four LAPD officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King half to death. Suddenly, Ashley’s not just one of the girls. She’s one of the black kids.

As violent protests engulf LA and the city burns, Ashley tries to continue on as if life were normal. With her world splintering around her, Ashley, along with the rest of LA, is left to question who is the us? And who is the them?

This book is powerful and meaningful for every generation present. I really appreciate the way the author could take a normal day in the life of a black kid in the 90’s and really represent how such a historic event either greatly or subtly impacted her. I think it’s important to show these subtle interactions between a teenage girl and the Rodney King riots of the 90’s. I found myself having to recenter my brain around the timeline because so much of this book could have easily been updated to represent 2020. I think that’s the most important part. 

This should be required reading for the new generation. History really does repeat itself if we don’t continue to educate ourselves. This story doesn’t just touch on the history of the race riots surrounding the Rodney King murder. It also covers the everyday racism that black people were still facing in the 80’s and 90’s continuing on to today. 

Police brutality may be the main subject here and while important, it is also essential that we get a look into the lives of our main characters and see the subtle racisms, the cultural appropriation, the backhanded compliments… This story is unflinching, honest, infuriating and educational on all the right levels but most importantly, it is relevant… still. Our characters are dealing with poverty, classism, systematic racism, and even privilege from both sides of the coin. This book is essential and affirming in the sense that we need change and our younger generations are going to be the ones to bring it.

Savvy B. is an avid Young Adult fiction superfan. 

Savvy's Reviews will be archived here, so you can catch up on all her thoughts on her latest reads.

Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes

 Savvy's Reviews

Not sure you want to dig into that new book? Let Savvy do the hard work for you! Here's her latest review!

Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Donte wishes he were invisible. As one of the few black boys at Middlefield Prep, he feels as if he is constantly swimming in whiteness. Most of the students don't look like him. They don't like him either. Dubbed the "Black Brother," Donte's teachers and classmates make it clear they wish he were more like his lighter skinned brother, Trey. Quiet, obedient.

When an incident with "King" Alan leads to Donte's arrest and suspension, he knows the only way to get even is to beat the king of the school at his own game: fencing. With the help of a former Olympic fencer, Donte embarks on a journey to carve out a spot on Middlefield Prep's fencing team and maybe learn something about himself along the way.

I hate to be the one to say it but I really did not enjoy Rhodes’s writing style in this book. Her sentences were all very short and choppy and it was very distracting and took me out of the book. I felt like, because of the writing style, I was either missing or missed a lot of details in this novel. 

In this novel we have a couple of kids who are just trying to fight back against racial injustice within their private school by proving that they are just as good as anyone else and deserve to be treated as equals in their neighborhood. I thought the element of fencing was a great representation of how these characters were really fighting to prove themselves and their worth within their community. 

I learned a lot about fencing though, honestly, and felt like it lingered a bit too much on that aspect. There’s a lot of metaphor meets in-your-face-symbolism in this book. It is definitely an excellent introduction into racial inequality for younger readers. 

Savvy B. is an avid Young Adult fiction superfan. 

Savvy's Reviews will be archived here, so you can catch up on all her thoughts on her latest reads.

What I Carry, by Jennifer Longo

 Savvy's Reviews

Not sure you want to dig into that new book? Let Savvy do the hard work for you! Here's her latest review!

What I Carry by Jennifer Longo

Growing up in the foster care system, Muir, named for both the hospital at which she was found and the great explorer John Muir, has lived in many houses and met many people. But for the past 17 years she’s had only one thing on her mind. Survival. And soon she will age out of the foster care system and be sent out into the streets of Seattle on her own.

Much like her namesake she intends on surviving. Surviving without any emotional attachments to friends, family, or even a boyfriend. There’s no room in her tightly packed suitcase for anything extra and she’s made sure to pack light for the past 17 years. With one year left to go, however, she might fight her biggest obstacle yet: herself.

I loved this book from the way the author wrote it down to the very importantly placed details of the story. It’s about finding, not only your place in the world, but family in the most unlikely of places. Muir is a highly believable character that I not only found parts of myself in but became highly invested in. 

I listened to this as an audiobook and found myself walking right alongside these characters through the woods and the trials they faced. The author’s note at the end was especially touching. To know her personal connection to this subject of foster care made this novel all the more special to me. My mother was adopted and I had her read it when I was done. She absolutely loved it and I believe it’s a book that we can pick up again and again. 

This is a story beautiful enough to rival the setting itself. A story of family, hope, and belonging, I highly recommend this book to anyone. Readers of all ages can pull a meaningful message from this book and enjoy it for years to come. “What I Carry” is an instant favorite on my bookshelf. I’ll be picking this one up again and again. 

If you read this book and loved it try Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis. I did a review on this book as well if you’re interested. 

Savvy B. is an avid Young Adult fiction superfan. 

Savvy's Reviews will be archived here, so you can catch up on all her thoughts on her latest reads.