SOCIAL & RACIAL JUSTICE HOME Adult Pages Youth Pages
BLOG Culture CornerRESOURCESAcceptance LIBRARYReading Challenge
YOUTH BOOK CLUBUPSTANDERS LEADERSHIP COUNCILLATINX HERITAGE MONTH ACTIVITIES
YWCA Hanover Book Club
7th-12th Grade Students
Space is limited to 12 students, so register TODAY!
Books will be provided for each participant.
We will have 2 zoom meeting check ins to discuss the book:
*Wednesday, September 23 at 6:00 pm
*Wednesday, September 30 at 6:00 pm
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world. Debut novel of renowned slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo.
Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.
But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself.
So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.
Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.
Parents: This book contains mature themes.