The Poet X

Acevedo, E. (2018). The Poet X. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
The Poet X is a beautifully written fiction story of a girl named Xiomara who has a gay twin brother named Xavier.  They live with their parents in Harlem.  She is normally taunted by boys and men due to her female development.  The author tells Xiomara entire story through poetry.  She was raised in a religious household and her brother and her are expected to be confirmed that year.  Xiomara speaks often of feeling inferior to her brother even though he has not admitted to his parents that he is gay.  She is only interested in her poetry until she meet Aman and they become an item.  Xiomara joins a poetry club at school and later decide to go to an "open mic" even though she is scared.  When Xiomara gets the boyfriend and her mom discovers it, she makes her confess even though she had done nothing wrong.  Her mother makes her confess to the priest for her lying and any other wrongdoing.  Later her mom finds her poem book and reads them and even though they are private, her mom and her argue.   Her mother burns her poetry in front of her.  Later they try to work it out with the counseling of the priest and then they all go to listen to her at the open mic night.  This is a such a great book; funny, humorous coming of age and written through poetry. This is a debut novel by this author and I believe their will be many more to come.  The story is life like, believable and relatable for the readers.  It is a quick read and is on multiple reading list. The book focuses on family, friends, love, religion, diversity and acceptance.  I loved the open mindedness and relatable ideas of this story.  Acevedo is a Slam Poet and an author of another book by the title of With the Fire on High.