Have you ever felt like everything in the world is against you?  Maybe, but Charlie Bell has. The book Rebound by Kwame Alexander is set in the late 1980’s as soon-to-be superstar Charlie Bell finds his rhythm on and off the basketball court.  Charlie’s dad died when Charlie was at a young age, leaving him without a father figure to guide him. He lives with his mother, who is struggling to take care of him.  Desperate to find a solution, she sends Charlie off to his Grandparents for the summer. At first, he doesn’t like it, but he soon learns that he can get used to it. Here, Charlie adopts the name Chuck Bell and starts going to the YMCA with his basketball-obsessed cousin Roxi.  He is inspired to start playing basketball when he wins a signed ball from the Harlem Globetrotters.

He learns about the game and starts to catch on, but remembers his father and starts to fall off track.  He feels discouraged and wants to give up working and everything he does in life. He feels like he has no place in the world – no meaning.  He has internal struggles that are eating away at his heart in the inside, as he tries to handle life on the outside. He wants to, but doesn’t speak up a lot and voice his problem to someone he can trust to get help.  Will he move past his father and use basketball to do it? Or will he fall into the deep pit of emotions he is in? Read Rebound to Kwame Alexander, prequel to his hit book Crossover to find out!

This book would be great for a read aloud at a middle grade level.  Before reading Rebound, however, everyone should read it’s prequel Crossover, also by Kwame Alexander.  When someone reads this to a large group, each person can make a personal connection.  Young people from kids to young adults who feel like they don’t have a place or don’t fit in can connect to Chuck and his struggles.  They can learn that everybody has a place so they don’t feel rejected or unsure about who they are or their purpose.  If someone is struggling to find their voice and stand up, they should read this book to find a correlation between Chuck’s life and their own,and hopefully defend what’s right.  Also, students can listen and think about their own situations. It is a quick read, which would also make it great for a book group. It’s written in verse, so you can get a lot done in a short time.  However, when it’s written in verse, the messages stick to you. The lesson I learned from this book was one of perseverance. Many people could also take away a lesson of always “bouncing back”, or Resilience.  It’s important to Rebound in life, especially for students at a young age.  I learned that even if everything is going wrong and you want to give up, keep going and find joy in the small things.