- Chapter Books
- Ages 10–14
- Sport
The Crossover
A Newbery Medal-winning verse novel that turns basketball, brotherhood, and family heartbreak into something fast, musical, and emotionally powerful. It is one of the strongest gateway books for sporty reluctant readers.
- Best for10–14
- FormatChapter
- Length240 pp
- Read aloud~1 hr35 min
The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Lyrical
- Rhyming
- Conversational
Tone
- Exciting
- Heartwarming
- Bittersweet
- Thought provoking
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
Josh Bell and his twin brother Jordan are basketball stars with talent, swagger, and a father who knows the game inside out. On the court, Josh feels alive: rhythm, speed, movement, and words all seem to cross over together. But off the court, things are changing. Jordan is pulling away, family tensions are growing, and their dad's health becomes impossible to ignore. Kwame Alexander tells the story in verse, using rhyme, rhythm, and page design to make the reading experience feel like sport in motion. The result is quick to move through but emotionally substantial: a book about brothers, competition, anger, love, and the shock of realising that growing up can mean losing things you thought would always stay the same.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- Best fit · 10–14
- Read aloud · 9–14
- Independent · 10–14
Prose load
Light
Visual support
Low
Reluctant-reader friendly
Very
Read-aloud quality
Excellent
Works well for
- Reading aloud
- Gift-buying
- Reluctant readers
Preview before sharing if a child is sensitive to: death of parent, grief, illness or disability.
Bedtime suitability
2 / 5 · Better outside bedtime
Sensitive-child
3 / 5 · Mostly fine
Graphic intensity
1 / 5 · None
Best for
- Sporty reluctant readers
- Verse novel
- Basketball story
- Newbery winner
- Emotional family story
Avoid if
- Sensitive to parent death
- Wants light sport only
- Prefers prose only
- Bedtime reading
Particularly good for children who are…
- Bereavement
- Illness in family
- Reluctant reader
- Struggling with reading
- Low self esteem
In the classroom
How it works in school.
Kwame Alexander's Newbery-winning basketball novel in verse — a brilliant reluctant-reader hook that's also superb for poetry, performance and talk about family and loss.
A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with. Reviewed for the classroom · June 2026.
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
The specific kick is the verse moving like basketball — rhythm, speed, page design that makes the reading experience feel like the sport. A twelve-year-old who's been told they don't like poetry reads this and discovers poetry has been hiding inside their favourite game the whole time.
- Proving yourself
- The underdog winning
- Being understood finally
- Family belonging
Why parents love it
The Newbery-medal verse novel that converts the kid who 'doesn't read poetry' into one who does — basketball, brotherhood, family illness, all delivered in verse that moves like the game it's about. The book to hand a sporty reader who needs proof reading can hit like training.
- Great writing
- Conversation starter
- Shared humour
- Educational for adult too
About the author
Kwame Alexander.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Come into this from…
Easier or preparing reads — perfect lead-ins.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
More like this…
Books that share themes and topics with this one.
Where you’ll find it
On these reading lists.
Buy or borrow
Pick up a copy.
- Bookshop.org ↗
- Waterstones ↗
- Amazon UK ↗
- Hive ↗
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