Garvey's Choice by Nikki Grimes

From Goodreads,

"Garvey’s father has always wanted Garvey to be athletic, but Garvey is interested in astronomy, science fiction, reading—anything but sports. Feeling like a failure, he comforts himself with food. Garvey is kind, funny, smart, a loyal friend, and he is also overweight, teased by bullies, and lonely. When his only friend encourages him to join the school chorus, Garvey’s life changes. The chorus finds a new soloist in Garvey, and through chorus, Garvey finds a way to accept himself, and a way to finally reach his distant father—by speaking the language of music instead of the language of sports."

Goodreads - Garvey's Choice

In case you haven't noticed, there's been a theme to the books I've been reviewing.  They are all works of poetry!  April is National Poetry Month, which means reading lots of fantastic books that are quick and easy to read.  This book was quick to read, but I thought it was far from fantastic.

Garvey is a chubby kid who is constantly being pressured by his Dad to play sports.  But Garvey isn't the athletic type.  He enjoys astronomy and reading, and a newfound love for chorus.  Through singing, Garvey must try to find his voice to hopefully communicate to his Dad, that he isn't an athlete.

This book was an extremely short read.  I did not like how short this book was because I didn't feel like I had time to digest what I was reading.  This book had the general storyline of a child who is overweight and doesn't see eye to eye with a parent, they find something that they enjoy, and they finally get along with their parent.  There was nothing special about this book.  Also, due to the length of this book and the fact that it was written in prose, I felt like I didn't connect with any of the characters.  All of the characters lacked detail and depth, even Garvey the main character.

I give this book 1 star.  I felt like it was over before it even started, and being totally honest I felt like there was no depth to this.  This book was a total let down because it the summary for this book held a lot of potential.  My students love poetry and quick reads, which will be the only reason that I will put this book in my classroom library.

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

From Goodreads,

"A cannon. A strap.
A piece. A biscuit.
A burner. A heater.
A chopper. A gat.
A hammer
A tool
for RULE

Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he?

As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually used his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator?

Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.

And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if WILL gets off that elevator. "


Goodreads - Long Way Down

Awards:

• National Book Award Nominee for Young People's Literature (2017)
• Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee for Young Adult Literature (2017)
• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Poetry (2017)
• NAACP Image Award Nominee for Youth/Teens (2018)
• Edgar Award Nominee for Best Young Adult (2018)
• Michael L. Printz Award Nominee (2018)
• Coretta Scott King Award Nominee for Author Honor (2018)
• Newbery Honor (2018)
• Odyssey Award Nominee (2018)

This book is written in prose and it starts with Will's brother Shawn being shot.  Will has to decide what to do because there are rules that are supposed to be followed.  He's not supposed to cry, he's not supposed to snitch, but he is supposed to get revenge.  Will finds his brother's gun and he decides he is going to get revenge on the person who shot his brother.  He steps onto the elevator and it stops at each floor.  Only the people who step on, aren't alive.  They're all dead.  Will must continue the long ride down to see if the elevator will ever reach the lobby.  

This book was a super quick read.  I read it in under an hour.  I absolutely love that this book was centered around violence and how it is passed on generation after generation.  This is such a real problem in America.  Everything we learn is passed on from our parents and siblings.  In this book violence is passed on and taught to children and siblings.  Violence is a real issue and there are children and teenagers who have to fear for their life.  They have to worry about being shot while walking to school and they automatically duck and take cover when they hear gunshots.  It is just a part of their life, but it shouldn't be.  I'm so glad that Reynolds made this topic the focus of his book.  I loved it even more that he showed the issue of violence through the eyes of a teenager who has been raised in it and struggles to make the right choice.    

I absolutely hated the ending of this book.  At the end they finally reached the lobby and all the dead people got off.  They just asked, "You coming?".  I was so confused.  I didn't understand if they were encouraging him to go and shoot the guy who killed his brother.  I didn't know if he was dead and they were walking him to the other side.  I had so many questions.  The ending just left everything hanging, and I hate when books leave everything hanging.  I would have loved if Reynolds would have given the book a proper ending, but he didn't.  

This book was good, but the ending was very weak.  I give this book 3.5 stars.  If you want a quick read or want to read poetry, then this is an excellent book for you.  There are a few choice words in it, which is why I won't put it in my classroom library.  

Rebound by Kwame Alexander

From Goodreads,

"Before Josh and Jordan Bell were streaking up and down the court, their father was learning his own moves. In this prequel to Newbery Medal winner The Crossover, Chuck Bell takes center stage, as readers get a glimpse of his childhood and how he became the jazz music worshipping, basketball star his sons look up to."

Goodreads - Rebound

I absolutely love seeing my students get excited about books.  The week after our spring break I received our Scholastic book order and my kids were excited.  They are always excited to see what their new book club book is going to be and of course they are always excited to see what books I ordered for myself and for our library.  As I was unboxing and sorting books, my students were watching.  I pulled this book out of the box and one of my students said, "Uh... is that Rebound?  The book that goes with The Crossover?"  I smiled and said "Yes."  She dramatically fell in the floor and begged me to let her read it right that minute.  I told her I was going to read it first before putting it in the library.  Every day she asked me if I had finished it.  When I finally did she excitedly snatched the book off my desk and started reading it promptly.  It's the little moments that make a difference.  And luckily this book made a huge difference for one child.

This book is the prequel to the book The Crossover.  This book takes place in the 80s and follows Chuck Bell, the father of the twins in The Crossover.  He experiences a traumatic event that follows him and begins affecting his attitude.  His mom makes the difficult decision to send Chuck to live with his grandparents.  While at his grandparents he finds that he has a knack for basketball that he didn't think he had in him.  Being with his grandparents allows him to focus on himself and the rebound he needs to move forward in life.

This book was a good prequel, but I really wish I had read it before reading The Crossover.  I loved that in this book Chuck enjoyed reading comics, and throughout the book there were comics of Chuck playing basketball.  Graphic novels are becoming more and more relevant in children's books and I think it is great that Kwame incorporated this into this book.  I felt like the comics throughout the book really broke up the monotony of the book and the poetry.  Plus, it makes the book more interesting to students because there are "pictures" in the book.

One of the things that I didn't like about this book was the ending.  I didn't like how the book suddenly jumped to present day when The Crossover was taking place.  I was reading along and suddenly we were in present day and it was Jordan and Josh who were telling the story.  That really bothered me because I felt like it was a consistent story.  It definitely took me a minute to figure out what was happening and who was even talking.  However, I did like that Kwame made all the final connections to The Crossover.

I'm glad that I read this book, and honestly I feel like some of my students would love to have other books of Kwame Alexander's in my library.  I would love to have a class set of these books so that I could do a novel study over them.  It would be highly beneficial to study the content and poetry.  I give this book 4 out of 5 stars and I'm definitely excited to hear what my student has to say about this book.