# The Poet X

**Author:** Elizabeth Acevedo
**Lexile:** 800L
**Grade range:** Grades 8–12
**Age range:** 13–18
**First published:** 2018
**Page count:** 368
**Genre:** Young Adult Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9780062662811`
**ISBN-10:** `0062662813`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/the-poet-x
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Xiomara, a Dominican-American teenager in Harlem, pours the feelings she can't say aloud into a leather notebook, then finds her voice through her school's slam-poetry club — against her devout mother's wishes. Told entirely in verse, Elizabeth Acevedo's debut won the Printz Award, the National Book Award, and the Carnegie Medal. It is widely assigned in grades 8-12 for its accessible verse form and themes of identity, faith, and self-expression.

## Themes

- identity
- coming of age
- family
- voice and silence
- writing and voice

## Content notes

- sexual content
- religious conflict

## Banned / challenged record

Documented removals or formal challenges in at least one school district in 4 states: FL, TX, VA, NC. Source: [PEN America's Index of School Book Bans](https://pen.org/banned-book-list/) 2022-2024.

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