“I thought tenth grade would be different
but I still feel like a lone shrimp
in a stream where too many are searching
for someone with a soft shell
to peel apart and crush.”
Xiomara Batista has always had so much to say, but she can’t say any of it out loud. Instead, Xiomara navigates her world through the sacred pages of her notebook and writes her unspoken words in beautiful and relatable verse. Her relationship with her mother, her community, boys, her body – Xiomara pours her thoughts and feelings into her poetry that she’s resigned to forever leaving on the paper.
Then, as all of the words she’s never said continue to whirl inside her and she begins to feel more alone than ever, Xiomara gets the opportunity to join her school’s slam poetry club. While she knows that her incredibly religious mother will never let her join, Xiomara is determined to find a community of people who will listen and hear her
The Poet X is a stand-out 2018 YA novel by debut author, Elizabeth Acevedo. Teens and adults alike will find themselves immersed in Xiomara’s world and captured by Acevedo’s poetry that explores identity, community and discovering the power of your own voice.
