Kwame Alexander is one cool customer and we got to interview him for a special bonus podcast!

Kwame is the Newbery winning poet whose books are turning a whole generation of Internet gamers and readers into lovers of poetry! For that achievement, he gets a Poetry Teatime High Five!

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The Crossover is a coming-of-age story told through a mix of free verse and hip-hop poetry that uses basketball as its subject. Publishers turned down Kwame's book proposal dozens of times. Julie Bogart asked Kwame about it in the interview. His answer is hilarious! You'll want to hear it.

This is a podcast for you AND your kids, so be sure to share it with them too! Might make a nice accompaniment to Poetry Teatime too. Just sayin'.

Listen to the Podcast

You can download show notes for the episode.

Tune in to the Brave Writer podcast on Apple Podcasts (or your app of choice) and also on the Brave Writer blog.

Also, check out Kwame’s books: The Playbook, The Crossover, and any of his 20 other books!

A Boomerang for The Crossover

One more thing! Brave Writer offers a Boomerang (the language arts tool that uses living literature to teach writing mechanics and literary devices through copywork and dictation) specifically for The Crossover. You can purchase it now as a single issue. Geared toward 7th to 10th graders, this Boomerang pops and sizzles with a wild variety of punctuation choices, font sizes and styles, and rhythmic language.