The Poet X
by Elizabeth Acevedo
***Winner of the 2019 CILIP Carnegie Medal***
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo has already won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, as well as the Michael L. Printz Award (for teens) and the Pura Belpré Award, which celebrates a “Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience.”
It’s a about a girl (with a twin brother) coming of age in Harlem in New York City. Her Mum is religious and would have preferred to be a nun. “If Medusa was Dominican and had a daughter, I think I’d be her,” says the narrator, Xiomara, who eventually finds herself through poetry and the support of an inspiring teacher.
“The story begins in Part 1 – ‘In the Beginning Was the Word’. During this first section the reader becomes accustomed to the unusual style of poetry mixed with novel writing; I personally found it grew on me and at many points felt easier and more natural than a normal novel. These poems are supposedly Xiomara’s diary entries which detail her day-to-day experiences.”
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