“You need to read The
Poet X.”
This is what I texted all my friends as soon as I read the
last line of this book; I wanted to tell every person I spoke to that this book
would not get out of my head.
Born and raised in New York city and the daughter of
Dominican immigrants, Acevedo was a National Poetry Slam Champion and coached
for the D.C. Youth Slam Team. The Poet X is
her debut novel and quickly became a New
York Times Bestseller. It also has won multiple awards including the 2019
Michael L. Printz Award and the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s
Literature. With The Poet X being her
debut novel, we are so impressed with her work and cannot wait to see what
Acevedo comes out with next.
The Poet X is a
breathtaking novel in verse narrated by the protagonist, Xiomara Batista, who
is a passionate and headstrong young Afro-Latina woman growing up in Harlem.
Xiomara slowly falls in love with poetry, especially spoken word poetry. Xiomara
pours her emotions and reflections of her day to day life into her poetry
journal, commenting on topics ranging from pressures from her mother’s religion
to gender to sexuality.
Acevedo told Publisher’s Weekly that she “pulls
from her experience working with teens and her own high school journals”, which
clearly is seen in her poetry, which truly channeling the emotions we can
relate to from our teen years. She points to her being first-generation
influencing her writing: “There are a lot of the cultural things that
inspired aspects of Xiomara, like the ways in which who you are outside of your
house is a little bit different than who you must be inside because of the
cultural norms that exist. That push and pull that Xiomara carries of being
first-generation is something I share.” (Publisher’s
Weekly, 2018) Because of her own personal connection, her words evoke so
much more meaning and carry weight of being something she has lived through.
Xiomara’s words haunted me at every moment I set down this
book. A particularly impactful poem is In
Front of My Locker (218). In the poem a boy at school grabs Xiomara inappropriately,
and instead of waiting for her friend and crush Aman to say something, she has
the realization of not needing to wait for anyone. In the poem In Front of My Locker we see Xiomara
standing up for herself:
“For the first time since I can remember I wait.
I can’t fight today. Everything inside me feels beaten…
He’s not going to curse or throw a fit.
He’s not going to do a damn thing.
Because no one will take care of
me but me.” (Acevedo, 219)
Xiomara is a girl to look up to,
with her strength and dedication driving her actions, even when everything inside her “feels beaten.” Her
emotions are so raw and realistic, and from the first page I found myself
cheering for Xiomara and her passion for life.
Acevedo excellently captures the
struggles of being a minority teen in her novel, and I can see people
everywhere being able to see some of themselves in Xiomara’s story.
“There is power in the word” Xiomara says, and yes, there is
power in practically every word of Acevedo’s book. (Acevedo, 353)
(SS)
Sources:
Acevedo, Elizabeth. The Poet X. HarperTeen, 2018.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/76224-q-a-with-elizabeth-acevedo.html
