Poet and author Kwame Alexander won the highest award yesterday for children’s literature, the Newbery Medal. It’s for his novel The Crossover, about a pair of 12-year-old, African-American, basketball-playing twin brothers. It’s a coming-of-age story, but with a modern and serious twist. Alexander joins us to talk about why he decided to write the story entirely in verse, his inspirations, and why he was shocked to get the Newbery.
KCRW
