El Deafo And The Crossover

I was given the Esmark All-American Award in recognition for my outstanding achievements in athletics, academics, and community service, combined

The Crossover, a verse novel by Kwame Alexander, is the story of twelve-year old Josh Bell and his life’s occurrences, including learning of his brother, Jordan (JB’s), girlfriend, Alexis, throwing a basketball at JB’s nose so hard that it bled, and hearing of his father’s death that happened during the basketball tournament he won towards the end of the book. In this book, many important lessons are learned such as, the most noteworthy: strong family bonds bring happiness and benefit to the entire family, the importance of listening to people who matter to you, and how meaningful and necessary it is to understand the feelings and actions of others.

The Newbery Honor award is given to the author with the biggest contribution to American literature for children. This book was chosen as the 2015 winner along with “The Crossover” by Kwame Alexander. The National Book Award is chosen by a board of judges, this particular book beat over 294 other titles. Both of these awards lets me assume that it is going to be a very quality book, and there is a high possibility that most people will like it.

Students are nominated by their teachers and guidance counselors, and are judged on their intellectual engagement, creativity, and commitment to community. I was presented this award at the annual academic awards.

The reviews I found were from those who have read the book. Here are just a few of what I found:

The author starts by explaining Baca’s background he tells the audience the difficult circumstances that were Baca’s life. All circumstances considered into his young adulthood Baca could hardly read nor write and truly had no desire to learn; Which makes it even more spectacular that he found poetry. His interest began at twenty-one when Baca was in prison, sentenced to possibly five to ten years. A couple years passed and a church program had extended a relationship via a letter they sent, they targeted prisoners without families. Unbeknownst Baca learned through steady communication with the church how to read and write. The writing gave him something to do and in a sense a purpose. Shortly into their connection, the man from the church introduced to a friend who was a poet. After this moment Baca’s life would never be the same. “I believe something in my brain or

The most recent of awards was in sixth grade. I received the a-b honor roll for

His books have caught the eyes of his readers for years. A few of his amazing works have been turned in to movies like the Polar Express and Zathura. He has won many awards for not only his books his writings and illustrations. His books are not

Poetry has a role in society, not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts. It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words. The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance. Yet, these words can hold more emotion and thought, however brief it was presented.

The Newbery book committee is a hard commitment with lots of dedication. The Newbery committee is made up of 15 members. The committee meets around october through December and each member nominates three titles. The committee meets multiple times before voting. The members take classes, have discussions, and talk to students while deciding on the book. The committee meets around midwinter to vote on the winning book. They must consider the setting, presentation, characters, style, and development of the plot. Everybody on the committee votes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. Each 1st place vote is worth 4 points and the winning book must have 32 points and an 8 point lead against 2nd place. The selection is a long difficult process but is very

On my junior year I received an Eagle Award for English 11. I got this award because I demonstrated that I could be a better version of my old self. I worked hard and put a lot of effort into my studies to obtain this award. This award is given to students who have an excellent grade in their class.

Otherwise, what I relate to most with this poem is his response on the education system bashing the heads of brilliant minds and stealing their creativity right out from under them. I’m a Film arts student and every class I have taken out of my major seems to be nothing but assignments and corrections. The school systems have become just read and recite. We are given textbooks to read and tests on our textbooks. Teaching has become more on standards and less on students actually learning and comprehending at a level they will be able to use and benefit from the

I could finally relate to a world beyond me and felt the need to interact with it through poetry. One of the first poems that I loved was called “I Am a Winner”. To say it was amazing is an understatement! The words on the paper seemed to talk and exist as people right in front of me. I was finally reading something interestingly vivid yet vague, telling and untelling all at the same time. It was expression at it’s purist. It was poetry. I realized then that I liked reading and writing poetry. Dr. Seuss was fine and all, but this was about being able to feel and taste green eggs and ham, not simply talking about it. It was about poetry giving me the courage to express my own uniqueness and being proud of what sets me apart from others. It was about falling in love with reading in the best form- short, sweet, and meaningful. The “I am a Winner” poem along with many other poems led me to write and read poetry and that’s very important to me. To this day I always take my green eggs with

receive three academic awards in previous graduating classes. She received an award for her acumen

On his first day, he asks someone to read the introduction of the students’ textbook on poetry. The introduction was full of complex wording and ideas about how to understand poetry, which Keating thought was meaningless. He then tells the kids to rip out the whole introduction, saying that poetry goes well beyond the “technical aspects”.