The book “The Crossover” is an amazing story that was written by Kwame Alexander. It talks about the world around a twelve year old boy, named Josh Bell or his nickname Filthy Mcnasty. His father Chuck Bell, also referred to as Da Man, was a retired professional league basketball player. His older brother Jordan Bell or JB, plays basketball like Josh. They were great brothers always having each other's backs, but one day a new girl came, which caught the attention of JB. He started to date her, and became farther apart from Josh, and soon he was alone. During a game one day, Josh had the ball, and they were winning. All they had to do was to keep the ball away from the other team. The coaches said to pass it to Jordan, but Josh didn’t. He charged in instead, then passed the ball nearly breaking JB's nose. Josh was suspended from basketball, by his mother, and had to do the dishes for the rest of the suspension. Jordan will also not talk to him, his dad was also having major health problems, and was not feeling well often. In the semi finals, JB got to play but Josh didn’t, but he was on the bench, cheering for his brother. His dad though was feeling sick, and he then got into a coma. He woke up a couple days later, but before the finals, he had another heart attack, and JB followed his mom to the hospital, while Josh went to play. JB came later but didn’t play, so it was just Josh, and at the end he hit a buzzer beater, and won the game. His dad sadly died though on the same day, and at the funeral, Josh was shooting free throws, and he made forty nine in a row, but didn’t make his last one. He was given a ring by his brother, which meant now he was Da Man.
Death comes to Chuck at an early age for him, they say his death came early because of his heart disease, but it is also related because of his sports. Lots of athletes die at a very young age, this is mostly because of their injuries, they don’t wait until they are fully healed, high pressure practice, and they neglect that they are sick. Just like Chuck Bell, Bill Blair also died young at twenty six years old. Chuck Bell was a basketball player, and his dad had the same heart disease as him, and he did not trust the doctors at the time, because when his dad went to the doctors he died. Even if it meant no more basketball for him, he retired, and decided to be a dad. This had made him die, even though his wife tried to make him go to the doctors he wouldn’t, because of what happened to his father. But it was not an instantaneous thing, it took time, even when he was playing he had to do a lot of work, even though he was sick he still did it. This is how death came early for athletes, because of how hard they train.
Family is about our brothers, sisters, and parents, just like in the book, we have Chuck, Josh, Jordan, and Crystal, and the whole family is happy. But sometimes the happiness can be broken, with anger and sorrow, like when the boy's dad dies, they are filled with grief. But when Jordan and Josh fight they are filled with anger, and that breaks them two apart farther away. But they still love each other no matter what happens between them, even though it looks like they are mad at each other all the time, deep inside they love each other. They also have competition between each other like in lunch, they argue about basketball stuff, like who is better, and who can win a one vs one. But soon they grow up, and don’t hate each other so much and get more mature about their father’s death, and are not so sad anymore. This is how the whole family is happy, but also filled with sorrow, grief, and angriness.
There was a lot of sorrow and grief in the story, because of Chuck's death. This was because Chuck was not just a supporter for the family and gave you food and shelter, but he was also a model, and a momentum for people to believe in themselves. He was like a coach, and a friend, to everyone. This also caused sorrow for the boys, because Josh was sad during the game, and missed four layups in a row, during warm ups, and Jordan, was sad that he couldn’t play, so he cheered instead. But they also will fulfill their fathers wishes, of being in the professional league, with spirit, love, dream, passion, support, and honor. Even though it is hard to think about their dad, they still pursue, and they keep trying to get what they want.
The story “The Crossover” talks about Josh’s life, and how hard it is, like how he got into a bad fight with his brother, and threw a ball at him. Also that his father died, from a heart disease, and he had felt guilty of it. Chuck’s death had come early not only from the heart disease, but also because he had played basketball, and he had to go on, even when injured or sick, because he wanted to be the best. But families are happy, but things can break them apart, like hatred, when Josh had an argument with his brother, but soon they all came back together. They also had a lot of sorrow, like when his father died, both brothers had different intentions, one came to the game, while the other didn’t and went to his father, but both were still really sad. The book “The Crossover” is a great book, but it also has a lot of grief, and it talks about many things that are true in life.
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