Edited by Nick Healy. Capstone/Switch Press, $16.99 (232p) ISBN 978-1-63079-012-7
More than 40 brief true stories from Pete Hautman, Alison McGhee, Adam Rex, Jon Scieszka and others address a vast range of experiences and emotions that will be painfully familiar to teens or anyone who ever was one. Several stories, like Rachael...
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Kwame Alexander. HarperCollins/Amistad, $17.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-211896-7
As the title suggests, Alexander’s (Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band) first book for teens jumps between the narratives of two teens who don’t see eye to eye: star quarterback Omar “T-Diddy” Smalls and Harvard-bound student activist Claudia...
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Kwame Alexander. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $16.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-544-10771-7
Josh Bell, known on and off the court by the nickname Filthy McNasty, doesn’t lack self-confidence, but neither does he lack the skills to back up his own mental in-game commentary: “I rise like a Learjet—/ seventh-graders aren’t supposed to dunk./...
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Kwame Alexander. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $16.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-544-57098-6
Alexander scores again with this sports-themed verse novel, a companion to his Newbery Medal–winning The Crossover. Eighth grader Nick, a devoted soccer player and fan, enjoys some friendly competition with his best friend, Coby. What Nick doesn't...
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Kwame Alexander.. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $16.99 (416p) ISBN 978-0-544-86813-7
This prequel to Alexander's Newbery Medal winner, The Crossover (2014), provides the backstory of twins Josh and Jordan Bell's father, Chuck "Da Man" Bell, a basketball star who died young. Set in 1988, the novel-in-verse follows Chuck, who is...
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Kwame Alexander, illus. by Daniel Miyares. NorthSouth (IPS, dist.), $17.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7358-4220-5
“You’d rather read a book than go to the beach?” A surfer frog named Dude can’t believe that his fellow surfer frog Bro is sticking with a “boring” book instead of hanging 10. But after hearing Bro’s running commentary on the book’s Moby-Dick-esque...
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Kwame Alexander, with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth, illus. by Ekua Holmes. Candlewick, $16.99 (56p) ISBN 978-0-7636-8094-7
Wisdom from Lucille Clifton (“Poems come out of wonder, not out of knowing”) inspires the title for this collection from Newbery Medalist Alexander (The Crossover) and collaborators Colderley and Wentworth. Together, they supply poems honoring—and...
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Kwame Alexander, photos by Thai Neave. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $14.99 (176p) ISBN 978-0-544-57097-9
Newbery Medalist Alexander (The Crossover) uses basketball as a metaphor for growth on and off the court in this stirring collection of 52 motivational poems-as-rules, grouped into four thematic sections (Grit, Motivation, Passion, and Teamwork and...
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Kwame Alexander with Mary Rand Hess and Deanna Nikaido, photos by Joel Sartore. National Geographic Children’s Books, $15.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4263-2767-4
Sartore, founder of the Photo Ark project—which aims to photograph every animal in captivity amid threats facing many creatures across the globe—teams up with Newbery Medalist Alexander and collaborating writers Hess and Nikaido to provide an up-clos
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Kwame Alexander, with Mary Rand Hess. Blink, $17.99 (464p) ISBN 978-0-310-76183-9
Betrayed by those closest to him and stunned by a family secret, 17-year-old Blade Morrison flees his comfortable but chaotic life as the son of a drug-addicted rock star. Seeking answers and closure, Blade travels to the Ghanaian village of Konko,...
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Kwame Alexander with Mary Rand Hess. Blink, $18.99 (432p) ISBN 978-0-310-76191-4
High school junior Noah has an unrequited crush on his friend Samantha, and when he discovers a handful of love letters from the 1960s, he is inspired to create mixed-media poetry that expresses his feelings. Noah had never planned to share the work
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Kwame Alexander, illus. by Melissa Sweet. HarperCollins, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-230781-1
Newbery Medalist Alexander’s love poem to literacy conjures up startling, luscious images: to begin reading a book, he tells readers, “peel its gentle skin,/ like you would/ a clementine..../ Dig your thumb/ at the bottom/ of each juicy section.”...
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Kwame Alexander, Author, Nina Foxx, Author, Nina Foxx, Joint Author Manisy Willows Books $17.95 (144p) ISBN 978-0-9678959-6-3
For writers determined to publish their own work, Kwame Alexander, with the help of Nina Foxx, offers Do the Write Thing: 7 Steps to Publishing Success. Alexander, a writer, publishing consultant and founder of the independent press BlackWords,...
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James Patterson and Kwame Alexander, illus. by Dawud Anyabwile. Little, Brown/Patterson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $16.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-3164-9816-6
Newbery Medalist Alexander (The Crossover) teams up with Patterson (the Max Einstein series) to deliver this propulsive fictionalized biography of boxer, activist, and cultural icon Muhammad Ali, beginning with his early life as Cassius Clay....
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Kwame Alexander. Houghton Mifflin, $14.99 trade paper (96p) ISBN 978-0-358-53941-4
In his essay “A Report from Occupied Territory,” James Baldwin writes: “People are destroyed very easily. Where is the civilization and where, indeed, is the morality which can afford to destroy so many?” In his taut, lyrical book, Alexander (Booked)
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Kwame Alexander. Little, Brown, $17.99 (432p) ISBN 978-0-316-44186-5
Newbery Medalist Alexander’s gripping historical novel in verse, a trilogy opener rooted in the Asante Kingdom in 1860, centers 11-year-old Kofi Offin—a child deeply connected to water. In early, lyrical chapters that evoke a dreamlike childhood,...
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Kwame Alexander. Little, Brown, $28 (240p) ISBN 978-0-316-41722-8
In this heartfelt memoir, Newbery medalist Alexander (Rebound) churns on what he has learned—and is still learning—about love. He traces his model for romance to his parents, who taught him to “use his words,” but were rarely affectionate and lived...
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Edited by Kwame Alexander. Little, Brown, $35 (448p) ISBN 978-0-316-41752-5
This essential anthology, edited by poet and YA author Alexander (Why Fathers Cry at Night), includes work by more than 100 living Black poets, from Elizabeth Acevedo to Rita Dove. In his introduction, Alexander centers joy and wonder as guiding...
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Kwame Alexander, illus. by Kadir Nelson. Versify, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-328-78096-6
Performed first on the ESPN show of the same name, this magnificent anthem to the courage and genius of black Americans has been turned into a picture book with stunning portraits by Nelson (Blue Sky, White Stars). “This is for the unforgettable,”...
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Kwame Alexander and Deanna Nikaido, illus. by Melissa Sweet. Quill Tree, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-306090-6
Emphatic and rhythmic verse instructs readers about the titular subject in this wonder-filled companion to Alexander and Sweet’s How to Read a Book, in collaboration with poet Nikaido. An opening suggestion encourages openness (“Begin with a...
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Kwame Alexander, illus. by Dawud Anyabwile. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $22.99 (224p) ISBN 978-1-328-96001-6
In this graphic novel adaptation of Alexander’s 2015 Newbery-winning novel, Anyabwile’s clean lines, athletic characters, and free-form layouts capture the fluid poetry of basketball and the helplessness and confusion of early adolescence. Middle...
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Kwame Alexander, illus. by Tim Bowers. Sleeping Bear, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5341-1114-1
Two of Alexander’s eponymous heroes star in this musical crossover celebration. Happy to contribute to her community but suffering cold feet at the prospect of headlining the Garden City Community Festival, Indigo dreams herself into the swinging...
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Kwame Alexander, illus. by Dare Coulter. Little, Brown, $18.99 (56p) ISBN 978-0-316-47312-5
Alexander begins this picture book with a vital question: “How do you tell a story/ that starts in Africa/ and ends in horror?” As Coulter’s art alternates between elaborately sculpted historical scenes and contemporary charcoal vignettes of...
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Kwame Alexander, illus. by Charly Palmer. Little, Brown, $18.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-316-44249-7
“Listen to...” repeats Alexander and Palmer’s entrancing history of Black music. The account begins with an image of brown-skinned people dancing and drumming in “the motherland.” Page turns move the text forward in time, picturing people toiling in
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