He is Josh and JB's biggest fan and in his younger days was something of a basketball star himself, but his health has always been shaky (hereditary hypertension), and Josh is worried about what it could mean for their family. Also, things are not good with their dad. First off, JB gets a girlfriend, and Josh is jealous about the way it changes their relationship. Together they rule the court.īut early in the season, some things happen in Josh's life that he's not happy about. He shares the spot with his twin brother, Jordan (i.e., JB). He's the star of his junior high basketball team. It's about a boy named Josh Bell (or Filthy McNasty, although, as it turns out, he's not crazy about the nickname). I guess I could stop gushing and actually tell you about the book. There aren't many books that I finish and immediately hand over to Mike. Never have I been so quick to try to snatch back my words. I was absolutely, totally, completely wrong. Because I was pretty sure they would clash big-time. Oh, and I guess I also was a tiny bit interested in seeing how basketball and poetry would go together. Quite frankly, the only reason I picked it up was because a) it won the Newbery, b) it was a verse novel, so I knew I'd only be giving up a couple hours of my life to suffer through it, and c) I wanted to be able to form a true opinion of it.

So when The Crossover won the 2015 Newbery, I was, hmmm, not that excited. Except for a brief stint when I was 16 and had a crush on half of my small town's high school basketball team, I've never really been that into the sport.

The crossover book