Solo Educator's Guide

by Kwame Alexander, Mary Rand Hess

Solo Educator's Guide is a companion to Solo by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess. This guide can be utilized in the classroom, in a home school setting, or by parents seeking additional resources. Ideal for grades 7-12.

Kindle Edition

Published May 26, 2020

About the author

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and New York Times Bestselling author of 21 books, including The Crossover, which received the 2015 John Newbery Medal for the Most Distinguished Contribution to American literature for Children, the Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor, The NCTE Charlotte Huck Honor, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and the Passaic Poetry Prize. Kwame writes for children of all ages. His other works include Surf's Up, a picture book; Booked, a middle grade novel; and He Said She Said, a YA novel.

Kwame believes that poetry can change the world, and he uses it to inspire and empower young people through his PAGE TO STAGE Writing and Publishing Program released by Scholastic. A regular speaker at colleges and conferences in the U.S., he also travels the world planting seeds of literary love (Singapore, Brazil, Italy, France, Shanghai, etc.). Recently, Alexander led a delegation of 20 writers and activists to Ghana, where they delivered books, built a library, and provided literacy professional development to 300 teachers, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an International literacy program he co-founded.

Reviews

[Oliolimafiafia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, Solo by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess. This book is about Blade's life. The main character is Blade. Blade is from a musician family, everyone in his family is a musician. Blades sister Storm likes to play hard rock music that goes with his father too. Blades play soft music instead of hard rock core music like the rest of his family. When Blade was 9 years old he drank alcohol and drugs during his fathers party but he only did it for a reason. The reason why he did that was funny because his band uncles and other people, at the party ,were laughing. His fathers name is Rutherford, He is in a famous boy band. Rutherford always has parties at his house. Many things happened to Blades family. If you want to know more about Blade's life, read to find out.
This book is a window into Blade's life. The reason why I am saying this is because the book Solo is about a boy's life. He likes to play his guitar and he keeps listening to soft music. But his sister and father, Storm and Rutherford, likes to play hard rock music. You may think that t's family is a loving, caring family that never argued, and lived his best life. Well no.. Blades life is much different than you think. Many things have happened in Blades life. You know when Blade was 9 years old his father was throwing a party at his house, his father always had a party at his house.There were adults at the party drinking, smoking, and drugs. His father grabbed Blade and blew smoke onto his face. Blade took a shot glass and drank it. Everyone laughed and Blade loved making people laugh. Well Blade it and after he did it for a few more times he passed out. He woke up in the ICU. A few years later Blade ws 18 or 19 years old. He had an argument with his sister, Storm. Storm couldn't take it anymore and yelled at Blade. Then she told Blade, ”If you don't want to be part of this family. You want to know something about you. You are adopted.” Blade was just shocked about what Storm told him about. Blade couldn't believe what Storm said to him. He was shocked, mad, and sad at the sad time. He had a mixed emotion going through his head trying to process what just happened earlier. If you want to know more about what happened to Blades life Read Solo.
I would recommend this book to people who like music, novel inverse, family issues, or trust issues. I would rate this book 5 out of 5 because this book got my attention for like the first 10 pages of it. This book has family issues and some trust issues in it. Solo is a really good book because this book made me feel like I was in the book and I saw what happened to Blades life. It has a really good lesson at the end of the book that people should listen to too.

[Aurora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dig Deeper

I enjoyed reading this teacher’s guide. I wish authors would create a “teacher’s guide” for their literary works for those of us who have spent longer than 5 minutes out of high school English.