Booked
4/5
()
About this ebook
In this electrifying follow-up to Kwame Alexander's Newbery winner The Crossover, soccer, family, love, and friendship take center stage. A New York Times bestseller and National Book Award Longlist nominee.
Twelve-year-old Nick learns the power of words as he wrestles with problems at home, stands up to a bully, and tries to impress the girl of his dreams. Helping him along are his best friend and sometimes teammate Coby, and The Mac, a rapping librarian who gives Nick inspiring books to read.
This electric and heartfelt novel-in-verse bends and breaks as it captures all the thrills and setbacks, action and emotion of a World Cup match.
"A novel about a soccer-obsessed tween boy written entirely in verse? In a word, yes. Kwame Alexander has the magic to pull off this unlikely feat, both as a poet and as a storyteller. " —The Chicago Tribune
Can’t nobody stop you
Can’t nobody cop you…
ILA-CBC Children's Choice List· ALA Notable Children’s Book · Book Links’ Lasting Connections · Kirkus Best Book · San Francisco Chronicle Best Book· Washington Post Best Book· BookPage Best Book
Kwame Alexander
Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and the New York Times bestselling author of numerous books, including Rebound, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, The Crossover, winner of the Newbery Medal, and The Undefeated, winner of the Caldecott Medal. Kwame is also the recipient of several other awards, including the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and the Coretta Scott King Author Honour. He is the writer and executive producer of The Crossover TV series, which won a Daytime Emmy Award, and is co-founder of LEAP for Ghana, an international literacy programme.
Read more from Kwame Alexander
The Playbook: 52 Rules to Aim, Shoot, and Score in This Game Called Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crossover: A Newbery Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebound Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trinity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cobalt Mask Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Black Hole Bandits Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrankenstein Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Jungle Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Booked
139 ratings13 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Like the soccer aspect, and some of the word nerd parts. It felt like a love letter to libraries and vocabulary — cool, but sometimes felt a bit forced to me. Still, I think kids who love poetry will enjoy it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You love
this book
not just because it's fun
to read free verseOr to write
in the second personInstead, you smile
AT the witty banter
AT the word play
AT the nuance in brevity
AT the cadence in verseYou think this is just
get this,want to read more!
the sort of book
that might get
reluctant readers to, - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Less about the sport than Crossover was, but heavy on the real life emotions and experiences of junior high - perfect in other words. I really enjoyed this very much and was engaged with the characters and their lives. From the super cool, ex-rapper librarian (who reminded me of a good friend), to the parents coming to grips with the changes in their relationship and in their own dreams, even to the bullies who jumped off each page they appeared on... there was serious truth happening here.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Booked by Kwame Alexander is a great book for struggling readers. The book is written in verse and leaves white space on the page. The language is friendly. The plot is relatable. Nick struggles with his relationship with his parents. He also is a struggling reader, but he develops a relationship with the school librarian. Recommended for middle and high school.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is the second book I have read by Alexander. I don't like the writing style, personally. To me it's choppy.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a middle grade novel (written in verse, but this is not obvious when listening), about a 12 year old soccer kid, his family, dealing with bullies and very young love. An award winning author
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is about a kid who likes soccer and it's made in poems.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I just love books told in verse and this one certainly didn't disappoint. This book had everything a librarian loves - books, a library, a book club , a COOL librarian, a love of words..... But it also throws in just enough sports, teen romance, teen angst, and family dynamics to make it appeal to a young reader.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bought and read this one after I read the Crossover book. Very similar format except this one is about soccer and the personal tragedy is not the father's death. If you liked Crossover, I think you'll like Booked equally well.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Like "Crossover," the protagonist of "Booked" comes across vividly and likably as your typical middle school boy, with a sports passion, a crush on a girl, and an aversion to reading. But there is trouble on the home front with his parents and a health issue sidelines him from his favorite sport. Kwame Alexander makes poetry cool.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5tween fiction, novels in verse, soccer, family separation
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nick Hall feels like his life is falling a part a little. His parents suddenly announce they are separating and his mom moves to Kentucky for work. He's getting bullied at school. He does have a couple things going he seems to be making progress with his crush, his best friend Coby always has his back, and it's soccer season. Nick's dad loves words and has written a weird word dictionary, Nick has an impressive vocabulary to boot. Footnotes with definitions are peppered throughout the text. There is a little pandering to librarians with the cool rappin' school librarian in the story who helps connect Nick to book club and books. A quick, engaging read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I love Alexander's voice and the way he plays with words and their physicality in his writing. This is a good read.
Book preview
Booked - Kwame Alexander
Copyright © 2016 by Kwame Alexander
Educator resources additional content © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Text on page 284 used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.
clarionbooks.com
Cover photo © 2016 by Steve Gardner
Cover design by Lisa Vega
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Names: Alexander, Kwame, author.
Title: Booked / by Kwame Alexander.
Description: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [©2016] |
Summary: Twelve-year-old Nick loves soccer and hates books, but soon learns the power of words as he wrestles with problems at home, stands up to a bully, and tries to impress the girl of his dreams.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015033312
Subjects: | CYAC: Novels in verse. | Soccer—Fiction. | Books—Fiction. | Reading—Fiction. | Self-esteem—Fiction.
BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Stories in Verse. | JUVENILE FICTION / Sports & Recreation / Soccer. | JUVENILE FICTION / Family / General (see also headings under Social Issues). | JUVENILE FICTION / People & Places / United States / African American.
Classification: LCC PZ7.5.A44 Bo 2016 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015033312
ISBN 978-0-544-57098-6 hardcover
ISBN 978-1-328-59630-7 paperback
eISBN 978-0-544-78771-1
v6.0921
For Lynne, Stacey, Mary Ann, John, and Deborah,
some of the coolest librarians and teachers on the planet;
and to the best English teacher I never had:
Joanna Fox, the real dragonfly lady.
Gameplay
on the pitch, lightning faSt,
dribble, fake, then make a dash
player tries tO steal the ball
lift and step and make him fall
zip and zoom to find the spot
defense readies for the shot
Chip, then kick it in the air
take off like a Belgian hare
shoot it left, but watch it Curve
all he can do is observe
watch the ball bEnd in midflight
play this game faR into night.
Wake Up Call
After playing FIFA
online with Coby
till one thirty a.m.
last night,
you wake
this morning
to the sound
of Mom arguing
on the phone
with Dad.
Questions
Did you make up your bed?
Yeah. Can you put bananas in my pancakes, please?
Did you finish your homework?
Yeah. Can we play a quick game of Ping-Pong, Mom?
And what about the reading. I didn’t see you doing that yesterday.
Mom, Dad’s not even here.
Just because your father’s away doesn’t mean you can avoid your chores.
I barely have time for my real chores.
Perhaps you should spend less time playing Xbox at all hours of the night.
Huh?
Oh, you think I didn’t know?
I’m sick of reading his stupid words, Mom. I’m going to high school next year and I shouldn’t have to keep doing this.
Why couldn’t your dad
be a musician
like Jimmy Leon’s dad
or own an oil company
like Coby’s?
Better yet, why couldn’t
he be a cool detective
driving
a sleek silver
convertible sports car
like Will Smith
in Bad Boys?
Instead, your dad’s
a linguistics professor
with chronic verbomania*
as evidenced
by the fact
that he actually wrote
a dictionary
called Weird and Wonderful Words
with,
get this,
footnotes.
In the elementary school spelling bee
when you intentionally
misspelled heifer,
he almost had a cow.
You’re the only kid
on your block
at school
in THE. ENTIRE. FREAKIN’. WORLD.
who lives in a prison
of words.
He calls it the pursuit of excellence.
You call it Shawshank.
And even though your mother
forbids you to say it,
the truth is
you
HATE
words.
Giddy-up
she hollers,
SMASHING the ball
to the edge
of the right corner
of the table
with so much force,
it sends you diving
into the laundry stack,
trying and failing
to lob it back.
Loser does the dishes tonight.
You can’t say that now, Mom. It’s game point.
She drops a shot
right over the net
that you can’t get to.
You’re a one-trick pony, young boy.
Stick to soccer, she jokes, then
headlocks you,
hits you on the backside
with her paddle,
and soaks your forehead
in kisses
after beating you
for the fourth game
in a row.
Mom
used to race horses,
but now she only trains them.
Correction: she used to
train them,
which was pretty awesome,
especially when you
got to cowboy
around the neighborhood
or watch
the Preakness
from luxury box seats
with unlimited Coke and shrimp.
But she doesn’t do it anymore
since there are no horses
in the city.
Last year,
she did get asked
to train
a horse named
Bite My Dust,
but when she revealed
that we’d have to move
to some small town
with no university
(or travel soccer team),
Dad said No
with a capital N.
Blackjack on the Way to School
With two sevens showing, you
say, Hit me! Coby curses
when you get a third. BLACKJACK!
Ms. Hardwick’s Honors English class
is one boring
required read
after another.
So you’ve become a pro
at daydreaming
while pretend-listening.
The Beautiful Game
You’re pumped.
The match is tied
at the end
of extra time.
Players gather
at center circle
for the coin toss.
You call tails
and win.
Real Madrid scores
the first goal.
Ours bounces
off the left post.
They make
the next two
in a row.
We make three.
They miss
their final two.
It’s 3–3.
Your turn
to rev the engine,
turn on the jets.
Score, and you win.
Teammates
lock arms
for the final kick.
The crowd roars,
screams your name:
NICK HALL! NICK HALL! NICK HALL!
Like a greyhound
coursing game,
you take off
from twelve yards out,
winding
for the kill.
But right before
the winning kick
of your Barcelona debut,
Ms. Hardwick
streaks
across the field
in her heels and
purple polyester dress
yelling:
NICHOLAS HALL,
PAY
ATTENTION!
The thing about daydreaming
in class
is you forget
what was happening
just before ninety thousand fans
started CHEERING you
to victory.
So everything blurs
when your best friend whispers
from behind,
She’s talking to you, bro,
and your teacher SLAMS
you with a question
that makes no sense:
The expression to nip something in the bud
is an example of what, Nicholas?
Uh, to nip it in the butt
is an example of
how to get slapped by a girl, you reply,
as confused
as a chameleon
in a bag
of gummy worms,
which sends
almost everyone
in class
into fits
of contagious snickering.
Everyone except
Ms. Hardwick.
Busted
Nicholas, I’ve warned you
about not paying attention
in my class.
This is your final warning.
Next time, it’s down to the office.
Now, can anyone answer
the question correctly?
I can, I can, Ms. Hardwick, says Winnifred,
the teacher’s pet (and a pain in the class).
What is the correct phrase, Winnifred?
Nip it in the bud, not butt, Ms. Hardwick, she answers, then adds,
Sorta like when you prune a flower
in the budding stage, to keep it from growing.
Then she rolls her eyes. In your direction.
Precisely. It is a metaphor
for dealing with a problem
when it is still small
and before it grows
into something LARGER, Ms. Hardwick says,
looking dead at you.
Ironically, Nicholas, by not paying attention,
you have stumbled upon another literary device
called a malapropism.* Do you know what it means?
And of course you do, but before