Elizabeth Acevedo doesn’t need my accolades for her book The Poet X since she has already won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Pura Belpré Award, but my blog readers need to know not to miss this book if they enjoy young adult literature.
Protagonist Xiomara Batista, the Afro-Latina poet X, comes of age in Harlem. Beginning with normal teenage angst, she adds parents who are strict with her and lenient with her twin brother, her need to use her fists to defend him from those who know the secret he hides, and her questioning of the faith that is so important to her mother. Aman, the boy who is assigned as her lab partner complicates matters, adding a romantic interest and another conflict with her mother’s standards.
Her best friend Caridad adds a voice of reason when Xiomara tries to navigate her rite of passage, conflicts with her mother, and the insistence by her teacher Ms. Galiano who has seen something special in her writing and wants to involve her in the school’s slam poetry club. She finds comfort in the journal that she fills with poetry, writing about feelings she is uncomfortable sharing with anyone until the teacher boosts her confidence.
The cover of the book has the notation “a novel by Elizabeth Acevedo” which I returned to read several times since the first person poetic novel sounds like a beautiful biography. The last good part of the book is that Elizabeth will be at the Faye B. Kaigler Book Festival this year. I’m thinking how to phrase an opportunity to meet her at one of the lunches – “Could I get you a dish of peach cobbler or a glass of iced tea?”