Booktalks Quick and Simple

	Acevedo, Elizabeth. POET X New York : HarperTeen, 2018 IL YA ISBN 9780062662804 (4 booktalks)
Click on the book to read Amazon reviews	Booktalk #1 Xiomara Batista doesn’t know where she belongs. She is more comfortable using her fists than her words. As she pushes against her mother and her religion, she finds escape in her writing. Xio fills her notebook with all of that she can’t say to others. Then she recites her poems to herself until they become chants to help her survive. When a teacher invites her to join the school’s slam poetry club and perform her poems, she doesn’t know what she should do. Should she stay quiet or speak her truth? (Georgia Peach Book Award, 2020) Booktalk #2 Xiomara Batista has a voice she can’t use in her home in Harlem. Xiomara struggles with figuring out who she is, especially because of the image her mother has for her. Religion, prayer, and Confirmation classes compete with the real world experiences where being curvy means sometimes Xiomara has to speak with her knuckles. When Xiomara’s English teacher invites her to join a school slam poetry club, she can’t stop thinking about performing poetry and finds that being silent is not an option. (Florida Teen Read, 2020) Booktalk #3 Xiomara, a fifteen-year-old Dominican-American teenager, is fierce – but she often doesn’t allow her voice to be heard. She hesitates to openly share her frustration with her mother’s strict expectations of obedience and piety, her doubts surrounding her faith and upcoming confirmation in church, or her curiosity in exploring a potential relationship (forbidden by her mother, of course). A strengthening desire to release her inner voice rises within Xiomara, and she finds an outlet in her school’s poetry club. Of course, attending the poetry club meetings means skipping out on her church confirmation classes, which would make her mother furious – but Xiomara decides that she is willing to keep secrets if it means finally pursuing her own passions. Written in verse, this novel effectively captures the emotional conflicts Xiomara endures on her journey. (Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award 2019-2020) Booktalk #4 Xiomara has her fists speak for her when her voice fails, when she is misunderstood or when she faces bullies. She also stands up for her twin, the brainy Xavier. She can’t use her fists though against her mother or the church, both of which try to stifle her from developing her identity (and her sexuality). Then she turns to her notebook, and Xavier encourages her to develop as a spoken word/slam poet. The novel, entirely in verse, shows how one Afro-Latino girl comes into her own in today’s Harlem. Xiomara has to pull on many different resources and she resolves problems that threaten to overwhelm her, fighting against other’s sexism, sizeism, and racism with her strongest asset: her creativity. Xiomara has a way with words, and these poems show it. (Book Talk by Jodie Purcell, Bishop Blanchet High School, ) (Washington Evergreen Book Award nominee 2021)
	SUBJECTS: Teenage girls -- Fiction. Dominican Americans -- Fiction. High school students -- Fiction. Poets -- Fiction. Poetry slams -- Fiction. Schools -- Fiction. Adolescence -- Fiction. Self-esteem -- Fiction. Interpersonal relations -- Fiction. Novels in verse.

Acevedo, Elizabeth.
POET X
New York : HarperTeen, 2018
IL YA
ISBN 9780062662804

(4 booktalks)

Click on the book to read Amazon reviews

Booktalk #1

Xiomara Batista doesn’t know where she belongs. She is more comfortable using her fists than her words. As she pushes against her mother and her religion, she finds escape in her writing. Xio fills her notebook with all of that she can’t say to others. Then she recites her poems to herself until they become chants to help her survive. When a teacher invites her to join the school’s slam poetry club and perform her poems, she doesn’t know what she should do. Should she stay quiet or speak her truth? (Georgia Peach Book Award, 2020)

Booktalk #2

Xiomara Batista has a voice she can’t use in her home in Harlem. Xiomara struggles with figuring out who she is, especially because of the image her mother has for her. Religion, prayer, and Confirmation classes compete with the real world experiences where being curvy means sometimes Xiomara has to speak with her knuckles. When Xiomara’s English teacher invites her to join a school slam poetry club, she can’t stop thinking about performing poetry and finds that being silent is not an option. (Florida Teen Read, 2020)

Booktalk #3

Xiomara, a fifteen-year-old Dominican-American teenager, is fierce – but she often doesn’t allow her voice to be heard. She hesitates to openly share her frustration with her mother’s strict expectations of obedience and piety, her doubts surrounding her faith and upcoming confirmation in church, or her curiosity in exploring a potential relationship (forbidden by her mother, of course). A strengthening desire to release her inner voice rises within Xiomara, and she finds an outlet in her school’s poetry club. Of course, attending the poetry club meetings means skipping out on her church confirmation classes, which would make her mother furious – but Xiomara decides that she is willing to keep secrets if it means finally pursuing her own passions. Written in verse, this novel effectively captures the emotional conflicts Xiomara endures on her journey. (Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award 2019-2020)

Booktalk #4

Xiomara has her fists speak for her when her voice fails, when she is misunderstood or when she faces bullies. She also stands up for her twin, the brainy Xavier. She can’t use her fists though against her mother or the church, both of which try to stifle her from developing her identity (and her sexuality). Then she turns to her notebook, and Xavier encourages her to develop as a spoken word/slam poet. The novel, entirely in verse, shows how one Afro-Latino girl comes into her own in today’s Harlem. Xiomara has to pull on many different resources and she resolves problems that threaten to overwhelm her, fighting against other’s sexism, sizeism, and racism with her strongest asset: her creativity. Xiomara has a way with words, and these poems show it. (Book Talk by Jodie Purcell, Bishop Blanchet High School, ) (Washington Evergreen Book Award nominee 2021)

SUBJECTS:

Teenage girls -- Fiction.

Dominican Americans -- Fiction.

High school students -- Fiction.

Poets -- Fiction.

Poetry slams -- Fiction.

Schools -- Fiction.

Adolescence -- Fiction.

Self-esteem -- Fiction.

Interpersonal relations -- Fiction.

Novels in verse.