Our vote to move onto the next round is The Crossover by Alexander Kwame.

The two contending books were Gabi: A Girl In Pieces by Isabelle Quintero and The Crossover by Alexander Kwame .

We chose The Crossover for several reasons. For one, it evoked a much stronger emotional response from the reader than Gabi: A Girl In Pieces did.  The use of prose was a unique way to represent the voice of the main character in the book.  You don't read many teen poetry books about a young basketball player whose father dies rather suddenly. The Crossover's characters were easy to relate to and, as we were reading, we were slowly drawn more and more into the book. At a certain point in the book, we didn't want to stop reading. With all factors considered, The Crossover was simply a more interesting read.

Gabi: A Girl In Pieces had it's high points too. It too was very interesting. We liked the characters and the addition of the drawings and poetry. However, Gabi: A Girl In Pieces didn't make us feel as deeply as The Crossover, and that is why it is not moving on.

Submitted by Cara (teen reader) and Maureen