Cross-X

The Amazing True Story of How the Most Unlikely Team from the Most Unlikely of Places Overcame Staggering Obstacles at Home and at School to Challenge the Debate Community on Race, Power, and Education

Joe Miller

Picador

Download Image Joe Miller Cross-X
Buy it now

Available Formats

BookeBook

A Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year
 
By almost all measures, Kansas City's Central High School is just another failing inner-city school--with abysmal test scores, only one in three graduate. Cross-X is the riveting story of Central's championship debate team. As the students and their coach face formidable opponents from elite prep schools, they must also battle bureaucrats who seem maddeningly determined to hold them back, friends and family who are mired in poverty and drug addiction, and--perhaps most daunting--their own self-destructive choices. It is a gripping story about the essential nature of debate in any democratic society, and how through argument, retort, and wit, ideals survive even under the most difficult conditions.

Connect with the Author

Joe Miller

Sign Up for
Author Updates

Book Excerpts

Preview Pages from the Book

Back

Reviews

Praise for Cross-X

"Forget the nerdy reputation that debate has. Instead think of a scenario as exciting as a sports game with high stakes like triumphing over racism, bad politics, and abject poverty. . . . An important, thoughtful, and provocative look at race and class in America."--The Boston Globe
 
"[Joe Miller's] enthusiasm is infections and the plot creates the suspense of a good courtroom thriller."--Entertainment Weekly
 
"Miller's mesmerizing, vivid accounts of the debates will leave you crouched in your seat, holding your breath. . . . An incredibly powerful, daringly hopeful book."--Minneapolis Star-Tribune
 
"Irresistible."--Elle
Back

About the Author

Joe Miller

Joe Miller's writing has appeared in Popular Science, Vibe, and Poets & Writers Magazine. He lives in Kansas City, Missouri.

Joe Miller

Back

Buy the Book

Available Formats and Book Details

Cross-X
The Amazing True Story of How the Most Unlikely Team from the Most Unlikely of Places Overcame Staggering Obstacles at Home and at School to Challenge the Debate Community on Race, Power, and Education
Joe Miller

Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback
Picador
October 2007
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9780312426972
ISBN10: 0312426976
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 528 pages, Includes a frontispiece
$17.00
Buy

e-Book Agency

Learn more about this edition
e-Book Agency
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
October 2007
e-Book Agency
ISBN: 9781429923163
ISBN10: 1429923164
6 x 9 inches, 496 pages, Frontispiece
$9.99
Books for Courses Available
Back

From The Publisher

Picador

Latest on Facebook

Latest on Twitter

Back

{ About }

{ Services }

{ Store }

{ Publishers }

Education

Children's

© 2011 Macmillan