He Said, She Said by Kwame Alexander

I'm a fan of Kwame Alexander, not for myself and my own reading, but as a teacher. A significant proportion of my students are struggling readers. Their struggles come from many places. Some are dyslexic, some have issues with generalized language processing, some just struggle so much with ADHD that they have difficulty tracking a story. Occasionally, I have kids who's eyes don't work in a standard way. Whatever the reason, reading is a chore for them. So, imagine asking a kid who views reading as torture to pick a book for independent reading that they'll enjoy.

Yeah.

It doesn't go over well.

In these cases, I need to help them find a book that is both interesting to them and something that won't push them past the point of frustration. I have about ten books that I tend to turn to first in these situations, Kwame Alexander wrote two of them. Crossover and Booked both feature young men who are athletes who are dealing with difficult situations in their lives. Both books are novels in verse. The subject matter makes it relevant to my students and the format makes it less intimidating for the struggling reader. I think all that white space makes them feel like it's less work to read...even though interpreting poetry is generally a higher order skill than interpreting prose. (I don't tell them that though.)

When I become a fan of an author I tend to follow them and try to read all of their books which is how I picked up He Said, She Said. I was expecting another novel in verse...actually I was expecting a lot of things based on the other two books of his I've read. This is not a novel in verse and it is not told from a solely male perspective. He Said, She Said is told from alternating points of view between a boy named Omar (or T-Diddy) and a girl named Claudia. The book is also prose studded with phone texts and Facebook posts.

Omar is his high school's star quarterback. He's starts out a stereotype of the popular jock type. He's frivolous in his affect and he treats women as interchangeable bed partners. Claudia, on the other hand, has no time for that. She's Harvard bound and socially motivated - she writes for the school newspaper.

In the beginning Omar is trying to get Claudia into bed (she's in no way interested.) However, things begin to shift when the school cuts funding for the arts programs, all of the arts programs. Omar masterminds a protest to impress Claudia, but it soon becomes something more.

I am impressed by this book. Many of Alexander's books are about protagonists dealing with deeply personal issues. Omar and Claudia have personal issues going on but this is as much about the impact of non-violent protest. It's an excellent book for teens to read.