Bibliographic Information:
Title: The Poet X
Author: Elizabeth Acevedo
ISBN: 9780062662811
Publisher: Harper Teen
Copyright date: 2018
Genre: Realistic fiction
Format: Print book
Awards or Honors: 2019 Printz Award Winner, Pura Bulpre Award Winner, Walter Dean Myers Award Winner, Carnegie Medal
Reading Level/Interest Level: 14+
Plot Summary: The book begins as notebook musings of Xiomara, or “X,” as she grapples with her restrictive mother, her brilliant brother, and the expectations of her culture and religion of how women are meant to behave. As she starts to fall in love with a young man in her class, and discovers a poetry slam club at school, she begins to push against her boundaries, with catastrophic consequences. But will Xiomara be able to use the power of her words to forge a new future for herself? Readers will be rooting for the Poet X until the last page, and thinking about her long after the book ends.
Author Background: Elizabeth Acevedo is a National Poetry Slam champion, a fellow of Cave Canem, and a bestselling author (Acevedo, n.d.). She has won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Carnegie medal, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and the Walter Award, among many others. She lives in Washington D.C.
Critical Evaluation: This powerful verse novel packs a serious punch. Made up of short verse chapters, the story slowly unfolds until it explodes. Acevedo’s writing is relentless, juicy, and insightful. The lines of poetry seem simple at first, but by the end of each poem, Xiomara has slammed her point home. The litany of awards speaks to critics’ appreciation of the book, but teens seemed to love it, too. The Poet X made YALSA’s Teen Top Ten, and had 15 enthusiastic reviews on Commonsense Media (many books only have a smattering of reviews or none at all).
Creative Use for a Library Program: Host a Blackout Poetry workshop. Choose some weeded or discarded books and cut out a few pages for each participant. They can black out the words they don’t want with permanent markers to use to create short poems that can be performed at the end of the workshop (inspired by DeMarco, 2022).
Speed-Round Book Talk: Xiomara chafes against the expectations her mother has of her; she’s never felt comfortable being quiet and submissive. When poetry starts to spill out of her notebook and into her life, will she be able to please her mother—and herself?
Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation: This book was challenged in North Carolina in 2021 for being “anti-Christian”; while the book was not in fact banned from the school district in question and a subsequent lawsuit was thrown out, it is being appealed (Marshall.edu, 2021). While the challenge was over a book being used in a school curriculum, the challengers are trying to have the book removed completely (school officials affirmed that no one is forced to read books and can be offered an alternative). I totally agree with the school’s decision to offer an alternative; while Xiomara rebels against the Catholic church, she has respectful discussions with her priest and I think the book falls well within the parameters of considerate discourse.
Reason for Inclusion: This is an absolutely enthralling book; I gobbled it up. It’s also a relatively rare representation of a Latinx teen and a great lesson in the power of poetry as storytelling for budding writers as well. Teens as well as critics loved this book, so it’s a no-brainer to include (even though it’s now been five years since it was published, it’s become a modern classic).
Want More? Elizabeth Acevedo introduces her book:
References
Acevedo, E. (n.d.). About. Retrieved from http://www.acevedowrites.com/about
Clark, T (n.d.). The poet X [review]. Retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/the-poet-x
DeMarco, N. (April 18, 2022). School library programming ideas for national poetry month. Retrieved from https://bookriot.com/school-library-programming-ideas-for-national-poetry-month/
Kirkus (December 21, 2017). The poet X [review]. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/elizabeth-acevedo/the-poet-x/
Marshall.edu (2021). Banned Books 2021—The Poet X. Retrieved from https://www.marshall.edu/library/bannedbooks/poet-x/
Leave a Reply