The Poet X

The Poet X, Elizabeth Acevedo's debut novel, is told in verse by Xiomara Batista, a fifteen-year-old Dominican American girl growing up in Harlem. Xiomara has learned to defend herself with her fists and her sharp tongue, but the feelings she cannot say out loud go into a notebook of poems. Her devout mother expects her to stay quiet, pray and prepare for confirmation, while Xiomara is full of questions about faith, about her changing body and the attention it draws, and about a growing friendship with a boy from her biology class. When a teacher invites her to join the school's slam poetry club, she has to decide whether to risk letting her voice be heard, at home and on stage. The book explores family, faith, identity and the power of performance poetry, and is written for teen readers.