The Crossover

77 pages • 2 hours read

The Crossover

Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Middle Grade | Published in 2014

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Quiz

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Quiz

Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes

Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.

“Warm-Up”

Reading Check

1. What is Josh and JB’s relationship?

2. What is Josh’s nickname?

3. What sets Josh and JB’s style apart?

Multiple Choice

1. Where does Josh’s nickname come from?

A) An embarrassing childhood incident

B) One of his dad’s favorite songs

C) His moves on the basketball court

D) His basketball idol

2. What does JB like to do that often leads to trouble?

A) Tease girls

B) Talk trash on the court

C) Make bets

D) Cut class

3. Why doesn’t Chuck let Josh wear his championship ring?

A) Because he will lose it

B) Because he hasn’t earned it

C) Because it will make him overconfident

D) Because JB will be jealous

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is significant about the style of the poems that narrate Josh’s experience on the basketball court?

2. What makes Josh feel good about his nickname?

3. Why do Josh and JB’s dad have to sit at the top of the stands at their games?

“First Quarter”

Reading Check

1. Why does Chuck’s basketball career end?

2. Why are doughnuts banned by Josh and JB’s mother?

3. Why does Josh get in trouble in class?

4. What does Josh’s mother make him do after games and practice?

Multiple Choice

1. What does Josh do in his mind when he’s on the court?

A) Compares himself to NBA greats

B) Narrates play-by-play

C) Worries about his home life

D) Thinks about what his father would do

2. Why does Josh have to cut his hair?

A) His mother dislikes it.

B) His school adopts a new dress code.

C) He gets in trouble at school.

D) He loses a bet to his brother.

3. What does Josh overhear his mother and father arguing about?

A) Chuck’s health

B) Josh’s grades

C) JB’s behavior

D) Crystal’s career

4. How does JB apologize for the calamity he causes?

A) He talks to Alexis on Josh’s behalf.

B) He does all of Josh's chores.

C) He brings Josh what he wants at the Chinese restaurant.

D) He sneaks Josh their father’s championship ring.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does the title of the novel mean for Josh?

2. Why does the family eat salad for Thanksgiving dinner?

3. Why does Josh let Vondie win in the wind sprint competition?

“Second Quarter”

Reading Check

1. What interrupts Josh and JB’s free throw contest?

2. What happens when Alexis calls the house for the first time?

3. What causes the rift between Josh and JB?

4. Why is Josh late to his basketball game?

Multiple Choice

1. What does Josh’s mother want his help with?

A) Helping JB with his grades

B) Watching his father’s eating habits

C) Keeping JB from dating Alexis

D) Curbing his father’s anger during basketball games

2. What is one way Josh does a bad job of impersonating JB in “Phone Conversation (I Sub for JB)”?

A) He uses advanced vocabulary words.

B) He mentions his haircut.

C) He forgets Alexis’s name.

D) He mentions that he can dunk.

3. What does Josh see as his tipping point?

A) Getting benched during the basketball game

B) Being blamed for his brother’s misbehavior

C) Missing an easy layup

D) Witnessing JB and Alexis kissing

4. How does Josh get back at his brother?

A) He tells their mother what he and Alexis have been doing.

B) He steals the ball from him during a game.

C) He hits him with a hard pass.

D) He pretends to be him on the phone with Alexis.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In “i-ron-ic” Josh says that it’s “not ironic” that his dad doesn’t like doctors after his own father’s death. Why is that a misreading of the situation?

2. What is the root of Josh’s problem with JB and Alexis’s relationship?

3. What is the double-meaning of the poem title “Second Person”?

4. What gets Chuck out of trouble with the police when he doesn’t have his wallet?

“Third Quarter”

Reading Check

1. What is Josh’s punishment for his behavior at the basketball game?

2. What is Chuck considering doing with his career in this section of the novel?

3. Why do Josh’s parents leave the game during “Text Messages from Mom, Part One”?

4. What happens to Chuck at the end of this section of the novel?

Multiple Choice

1. How does Josh try to make up with his brother?

A) He apologizes to Alexis.

B) He challenges JB to a basketball game.

C) He does all of JB’s chores.

D) He writes JB a letter.

2. Why won’t JB accept Josh’s apologies?

A) He doesn’t think Josh is sorry.

B) He is jealous of Josh’s performance on the court.

C) He knows Josh hurt him deliberately.

D) He knows Josh is angry about something else.

3. What is the metaphorical storm that’s referenced in several poems?

A) Josh’s basketball performance

B) Chuck’s anger at the refs

C) JB and Josh’s feud

D) Crystal’s scorn for Josh and Chuck’s churlish behavior

4. What does Josh learn about Alexis when she comes to dinner?

A) She initially liked Josh.

B) She has a famous father too.

C) She and JB are breaking up.

D) She loves basketball.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why is Josh’s mother so concerned about his misbehavior?

2. What is significant about the structure of “Dear Jordan,” the poem that describes Josh’s attempt to make up with his brother?

3. Why does Chuck say he wants to return to work?

4. What is significant about Josh suggesting they stop at the sneaker store?

“Fourth Quarter” and “Overtime”

Reading Check

1. Why doesn’t Jordan play in the championship game?

2. What happens during the championship game?

3. What gift does Chuck leave for Josh?

4. How does the novel end?

Multiple Choice

1. What does the doctor assume about Josh and his father that annoys Josh?

A) That they go fishing

B) That Josh helped his father eat poorly

C) That they aren’t close

D) That Josh didn’t do enough to keep his father calm

2. How does Josh feel about his father’s worsening health?

A) Afraid

B) Sad

C) Angry

D) Annoyed

3. How does Alexis try to be more welcoming to Josh?

A) She brings him dessert.

B) She invites him to come to over when JB does.

C) She invites him to a college basketball game.

D) She brings him a gift from Duke.

4. What does Josh see just before he wins the championship?

A) His father’s face

B) His brother crying

C) His coach trying to stop him

D) His mother arriving to the gym

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Josh blame his crossover for his dad’s heart attack?

2. What is significant about the poem that portrays Josh and his father’s conversation in the hospital?

3. How does the concrete poetry in “The Last Shot” have a different meaning than the previous poems about basketball even though it uses the same kind of imagery, language, and structure?

4. Why does Josh want to practice his free throws in the “Overtime” section?

Quizzes – Answer Key

“Warm-Up”

Reading Check

1. They are twin brothers. (“Jordan Bell”)

2. Filthy McNasty (“Josh Bell”)

3. Josh’s dreadlocks (“Five Reasons I Have Locks”)

Multiple Choice

1. B (“How I Got My Nickname”)

2. C (“Jordan Bell”)

3. B (“Conversation”)

Short-Answer Response

1. They are concrete poetry. (“Dribbling,” “Filthy McNasty”)

2. His dad screaming it from the stands (“At First”)

3. Because he’s too confrontational and excited (“Mom Tells Dad”)

“First Quarter”

Reading Check

1. He has tendonitis and turns down surgery. (“The Inside of Mom and Dad’s Closet”)

2. Their father has dangerous hypertension. (“Mom shouts”)

3. He passes a note to Alexis from JB. (“How Do You Spell Trouble?”)

4. Do his homework and study (“Having a Mother”)

Multiple Choice

1. B (“The Sportscaster”)

2. D (“The Bet, Part Two”)

3. A (“Mom shouts”)

4. C (“Mom doesn’t like us eating out”)

Short-Answer Response

1. It’s a basketball move that he excels at, just like his father before him. (“cross-o-ver”)

2. Their grandmother fell, and the family meal was cooked by an uncle with no cooking expertise. (“Why We Only Ate Salad for Thanksgiving”)

3. Because Josh knows the value in practice, so he doesn’t want to miss it by winning (“Practice”)

“Second Quarter”

Reading Check

1. Their father’s coughing fit (“I’m on Free Throw Number Twenty-Seven”)

2. JB is too afraid to talk to her and gives Josh the phone. (“This is Alexis—May I Speak to Jordan?”)

3. JB starts dating Alexis. (“JB and I”)

4. He and his father are pulled over by the police. (“Game Time: 6:00 p.m.”)

Multiple Choice

1. B (“Mom calls me into the kitchen”)

2. A (“Phone Conversation (I Sub for JB)”)

3. D (“tip-ping point”)

4. C (“Before”)

Short-Answer Response

1. Because his fear of his illness is what prevents him from getting treatment (“i-ron-ic”)

2. He feels jealous and wants to be in a relationship too. (“The main reason I can’t sleep”)

3. It refers to both the second-person point of view of the poem and the fact that Josh feels like he has lost access to his twin brother. (“Second Person”)

4. His status as a former basketball player (“Game Time: 6:00 p.m.”)

“Third Quarter”

Reading Check

1. He is suspended from play. (“Suspension”)

2. Returning to coaching basketball (“I run into Dad’s room”)

3. Chuck is sick. (“Text Messages from Mom, Part One”)

4. He has a massive heart attack. (“At noon, in the Gym, with Dad”)

Multiple Choice

1. D (“Dear Jordan”)

2. C (“The next morning”)

3. B (“Storm”)

4. D (“Things I Learn at Dinner”)

Short-Answer Response

1. Because she knows that his success insulates him from racist perceptions of young Black men and the increased consequences they face (“Suspension”)

2. It is written as two halves that can be read as separate pieces or as one unified poem. (“Dear Jordan”)

3. He wants to feel like Da Man again, and the basketball court is where he belongs. (“I run into Dad’s room”)

4. He knows that JB is the one who wants a pair of new sneakers, making it a selfless act. (“School’s Out”)

“Fourth Quarter” and “Overtime”

Reading Check

1. He doesn’t want to while his father is in the hospital. (“Questions”)

2. Chuck has complications in the hospital and Josh’s team wins. (“Text Messages from Mom, Part Two”)

3. His championship ring (“Free Throws”)

4. With Josh practicing free throws in the driveway (“Free Throws”)

Multiple Choice

1. A (“The doctor pats Jordan and me on the back and says”)

2. C (“Mom, since you asked, I’ll tell you why I’m so angry”)