It’s January! The time some of us try to make resolutions to do something new. This can sometimes extend to our reading habits. When it comes our reading diet, most of us stay in our narrow comfort zones. We know we like a certain genre and tend to stick to it.  I know that’s true for me.  

I’m going to suggest two books that might be a reach for many of us. I know most of my readers don’t think of poetry when they reach for a new book but I’m going to suggest two books    (young adult novels-in-verse) that I think many of you will enjoy.  And even better if you can get the audios read by the author.

The books are The Poet X and Clap When You Land both by Elizabeth Aceveda, a Dominican-American slam poety champion. Her inventive, rhythmic use of language is a tribute to her talent and Dominican heritage.

 First The Poet X:

The Poet X won the CILIP Carnegie Medal, a British literary prize that celebrates books for young readers, for its “searing, unflinching exploration of culture, family and faith.”

It a coming of age story of Harlem teenager, Xiomara Battista. She is a frustrated, closely controlled teen who struggles to express herself. Her parents are devout Catholics with ideas that frustrate her and her mother uses religion as a weapon to stifle Xiomara’s creativity and burgeoning sexuality.  She feels judged by the people in her community because of her desire to speak out against the cultural norms and how they suffocate her.

Xiomara finds solace at school when a teacher notices her need to express herself in ways that are not harmful. She encourages her to attend an after school slam poetry club, where her words and ideas are taken seriously. While it takes time to come around to this, Xiomara slowly realizes that poetry is a medium through which she can discover herself and reclaim her identity. It is the outlet she needs to figure out her frustrations and confusion. A positive way forward. She says:

“I only know that learning to believe in the power of my own words has been the most freeing experience of my life. It has brought me the most light. And isn’t that what a poem is? A lantern glowing in the dark.”

Clap When You Land:

This is a beautiful story about loss, grief, the difficulty of forgiveness and bittersweet bonds that can enrich us. It is set in both the Dominican Republic and New York.

This is the tale of two teenage girls. Their lives fall apart when, one June day, they receive word that their father, died in a plane crash. In the weeks after the crash, the girls discover that their father kept huge secrets while he was alive—most notably, that he had two wives and two daughters in two countries.

It is inspired by the crash of Flight AA587, in New York City in 2001, two months after 9/11. On its way to the Dominican Republic, 250 Dominicans died on that flight. Acevedo was thirteen when it happened and remembers how it devastated her community.

Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people…In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.

Separated by distance—and their Papi’s secrets—the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything, they each learn they have a sister.

“I know what ugly looks like

when it departs from your mouth fully formed.

How the words can push space between

two people;

how it’s close to impossible to collapse the space.“

How the story unfolds is a wow. 

While these books are rooted in a specific community, the narrative is universal and I highly recommend you give them a try.

*I want to note as part of the war on books, Clap When You Land, was temporarily banned in Pennsylvania because of explicit sexual content. The reason: one of the main characters was sexually assault on a New York subway.  We need to continue our vigilance in stopping these outrageous bans.