77 pages • 2 hours read
Kwame AlexanderRebound
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Kwame Alexander
Kwame Alexander is an award-winning author of literature for children and young adults. Born in Manhattan, New York, in 1968, Alexander grew up in a family that valued literature—his father was a book publisher and scholar, and his mother was an educator—which shaped his commitment to writing accessible literature for reluctant readers. He attended 13 different schools over the course of his childhood and wrote his first poem at 13 (for his mother on Mother’s Day). Many of his novels contain characters around this age, exploring the challenges and joys of being a child and young adult. He later went to Virginia Tech, where he took a writing class from author Nikki Giovanni and decided to become a writer and poet.
Kwame Alexander has published 36 books. One of his most famous is The Crossover series, which includes The Crossover (2015), Booked (2016), and Rebound (2018); though published last, Rebound serves as a prequel to the other two installments. He has also written titles such as Solo (2017), Swing (2018, coauthored with Mary Rand Hess), Why Fathers Cry at Night (2023), and many more. Many of his novels are written in poetic verse; for the Crossover series, he stated that poetry was a medium that could “mirror the energy, the movement, the pulse of a basketball game” (Alexander, Kwame. Interview with Meg Medina. “Five Questions for Kwame Alexander.” Meg Medina, 6 Aug. 2014). His writing has won several awards, including the Coretta Scott King Author Honor, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and the 2017 Inaugural Pat Conroy Legacy Award. He is also a regular contributor to the National Public Radio (NPR) Morning Edition. Alexander often writes in an accessible, poetic style influenced by hip-hop and rap music, creating emotionally complex characters who navigate the challenges of being young while discovering their identity in a complex world.
Kwame Alexander has also founded a production company Big Sea Entertainment with the goal of further enriching entertainment for children and young adults. Big Sea Entertainment produced an adaptation of the Crossover series, also entitled The Crossover and first available on Disney+ in April 2023 in collaboration with LeBron James’s production company, Springhill Company. Alexander is also the creator and host of a podcast titled Why Fathers Cry, which discusses emotional topics and parenting with boys and fathers. He regularly speaks at schools, libraries, and events across the United States and the world. He also opened the Barbara E Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana as part of an international Literacy program called LEAP for Ghana, which he cofounded.
Historical Context: The Cultural Impact of the 1980s
Rebound takes place during the summer of 1988. At this time, many adult men who had served in the military during the Vietnam War (1955-1975) were now fathers raising families. These men had come home to a country conflicted about the morality of the war, causing much emotional hardship that impacted generations to come. The effects of this reverberate in Charlie’s friend Skinny, whose father is described as experiencing post-traumatic stress that prevents him from living with his family. Skinny’s behavior stems not merely from an absence of positive role models but also from this particular trauma.
1980s entertainment also looms large in Rebound. Kwame Alexander writes the novel in poetic verse, reflecting a hip-hop and rap style that became a cultural movement in this decade, when artists like LL Cool J, Run DMC, and Public Enemy gained widespread acclaim. Alexander also alludes to pop artists such as Michael Jackson, whose iconic looks Skinny often copies. Skinny’s behavior highlights that these artists were often role models for young Americans—particularly young Black Americans—which highlights The Impact of Role Models in Adolescence. The National Basketball Association (NBA) figures the novel references, including Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan, serve a similar role. In the 1980s, NBA athletes became symbols of power, wealth, and excellence: a source of cultural pride and identity in many Black communities.
The protagonist of Rebound finds solace not only in basketball but also in comic books. The superhero genre experienced a resurgence in the 1980s with comics and graphic novels that included characters such as the “Fantastic Four,” “Black Panther,” and “Thor”—all figures Charlie references. The emergence of antiheroes as well as emotionally complex superheroes contributed to more nuanced depictions of heroism and identity, which adolescents could relate to differently than they could traditional hero archetypes. In Rebound, comics serve as an overarching symbol of an individual living in their power despite hardship.
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