Freebie Fridays #11

Hey Friends,

As you know, I have been trying this new thing for me where I tell you about a book I loved and share a free ebook link to that book if possible.

This book and another one is what driven my love for writing and reading novels in verse. I bet you already guessed which book I’m talking about you will soon. She’s the queen of this writing style, and the author I’m talking about is none other than Elizabeth Acevedo.

It might sound crazy to some, but I’m just thinking about how writing makes me feel I need no walls to protect my emotions while I’m doing it. Today this is showing by a few tears, which is fine. Remember crying isn’t always sad it can be a range of feelings.

First Lines:

The summer is made for stoop-sitting
and since it’s the last week before school starts,
Harlem is opening its eyes to September.
I scope out this block I’ve always called home.
Watch the old church ladies, chancletas flapping
against the pavement, their mouths letting loose a train
of island Spanish as they spread he said, she said.
Peep Papote from down the block
as he opens the fire hydrant
so the little kids have a sprinkler to run through.
Listen to honking cabs with bachata blaring
from their open windows
compete with basketballs echoing from the Little Park.
Laugh at the viejos—my father not included—
finishing their dominoes tournament with hard slaps
and yells of “Capicu!”

Goodreads Blurb:

A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world. Debut novel of renowned slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself.

So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

Goodreads Link Here

Download Link Here

Alex