Crush: Love Poems [Paperback]

Kwame Alexander (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2007

Crush is a poetry memoir of love, for people young and cool, and older folks too, who want to remember and rejoice. From friendship to flirting, from the first date to the break-up, this collection of passion poems intertwines snapshots of innocent young adult angst with a fiery language that defines the first love which none of us ever outgrows. Crush is the first book of its kind, love poems for the Young Adult market. And it s destined to become a bestseller.

Editorial Reviews

Review

STARRED REVIEW: Gr 8 Up: Alexander offers a cosmopolitan menu of tanka, haiku, long titles that lead into short first lines, verbal formulas that lead to sung discoveries, French phrases, prose poems, and poems written in Spanglish. The book is divided into three sections with various speakers, and a fourth section that includes poems by Sherman Alexie, Pablo Neruda, Nikki Giovanni, and the title poem, "Crush," by Naomi Shihab Nye. A poem in the first section, "What Makes Me Feel Good," begins with one word, "isn't/the way you style your hair or/how all the other girls stare/it's not even the way you kneel/in church, unafraid of prayer…." Many of the poems lend themselves to pairing with the classics. In "He Says He Loves Me," the speaker responds to her paramour's advances (think Marvel's finessing in "To His Coy Mistress"). When he tells her he has "protection," she asks "does he have enough of it/To guard my heart/To give shelter to my soul/in case of emergency." This well-crafted anthology will capture the interest of teens and possibly encourage them to submit their own "crush" poems to an appended Web site for a contest. Teresa Pfeifer, Alfred Zanetti Montessori Magnet School, Springfield, MA --School Library Journal (10/2007)

If I can have a literary son, I like to think it is Kwame Alexander. Hard worker; truth seeker; soul sharer. --Nikki Giovanni

An All Around Poetry Phenom --Charleston City Paper

About the Author

Kwame Alexander is a poet, publisher, and an awrd-winning producer of literary programs, Dubbed a "phenom" in the poetry world by The Charleston (SC) City Paper, Alexander has written for television, the stage, and authored ten books including the best-selling Do The Write Thing: 7 Steps to Publishing Success, Dancing Naked on the Floor: poems and essays, Tough Love: The Life and Death of Tupac Shakur, and most recently a young adult title, Crush: Love Poems . He speaks, and conducts writing/publishing workshops at schools and conferences throughout the country. Alexander resides in the Washington, DC area, where he produced the annual Capital BookFest presented by The Washington Post, and currently serves as the President of Book-in-a-Day, a literacy program that teaches and inspires youth in the writing and publishing process. The Kwame Alexander Papers, a collection of his writings, correspondence, and other professional and personal documents is held at the George Washington University Gelman Library.

Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Word of Mouth Books (April 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888018402
• ISBN-13: 978-1888018400
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,255,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Well Worth the Price, October 16, 2011

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Raymond G. Ward (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Crush: Love Poems (Paperback)

Kwame Alexander is one of the most underrated and under-publicized poets of the 21st Century. His body of work has this unique ability to just cut right through the minutiae of life capture the significance of each and every moment. "Crush" contains some of his best work ever, including my favorite piece, "Awkward Poems." Pick it up.