STUDENT BOOK REPORT

 
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You're doing a book report about me? Awesome! Or about one of my books? That’s great, too. Now go do your homework and quit wasting time surfing the web.

Just kidding! Here's a few helpful hints for writing a book report about me: 

  1. Check my About page on this site
  2. Read the FAQ section on this site
  3. Read the Fun Facts page about me 
  4. Go to Wikipedia. My page there is fair – not great but also not terrible. And if you want to make a contribution, go right ahead.
  5. Read on… here are a few more tidbits:
  • I wrote Homeboyz when one of my students (at the school where I taught) was shot in a drive-by.
  • Caged Warrior was born out of a love for the heart, guts, and spirit of fighters.
  • My Daddies picture books are entirely inspired by my love for my own children.
  • I am a nerd – thus Nerd Girls.
  • I used hip-hop as a teacher to build bridges of relevance and access to more complex rigorous text during my years as a classroom teacher. Students loved it, their academic performance sky-rocketed, and I am still a huge fan of the genre (Actually, I love using music in the classroom to reach and teach kids and think our modern-day schools don’t use the power of music and the arts enough).
  • If you read the first two pages of The Downside of Being Up you’ll see why I think it’s one of the funniest YA books ever published (But people don’t like to talk about that stuff).
  • During the writing of many of my books, I have cried. Especially, The Hoopster, Hip-Hop High School and The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez.
  • A lady once bought my book Daddies Do It Different as a gift for her husband as a way to tell him the good news that she was pregnant with their first child (So cool, huh?).
  • When kids read my books, they often don’t realize that they are not reading the first draft of the novel but rather the 57th. Writing is rewriting.
  • My book editors work really hard behind the scenes to make me look good. My name may be on the covers, but I don’t do this stuff alone.
  • My students helped me a ton with the Spanish in The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez.
  • I love sushi. Raw fish… MMMM!
  • Now sign up for my newsletter, follow me in the world of social media and then get back to your schoolwork (And good luck with your report. Thank you for your support!).