Booked by Kwame Alexander (review)

Twelve-year-old Nick has a fraught relationship with his father, so it’s particularly hard on Nick when his mother leaves. He tries to hold it together, and things seem to be going pretty well when his soccer team gets invited to a national tournament and a girl he likes starts showing signs that she might like him back. Tensions between him and his father escalate, though, and when Nick gets into a fight with some bullies who steal his bike, an overwrought online post brings his mom back to town so they can all go to family counseling. Her return is only temporary, however, and even though she returns again when Nick’s appendix bursts, it doesn’t erase the fact that his parents are really splitting up. While the poetry in this verse novel doesn’t offer quite the energy and pop of The Crossover (BCCB 2/14), it still rings true to the emotional highs and lows of a tween boy grieving the breakup of his family, negotiating his first crush, and finding his courage. The aural starts and stops of the poetry effectively convey the angry set of a jaw, a sullen eyeroll, the easy closeness of a mother and son, the awkwardness of approaching a smart, attractive girl, and the hesitations of achieving détente with a brusque father. Despite Nick’s protests over his father’s insistence that he, as a black kid, must have an extraordinary vocabulary if he wants to stand out, he puts his lessons to good use in school and out; his footnotes, in their wry, vernacular imitation of his father’s more scholarly work, introduce some obscure but useful terms in a friendly way. A rap-star-turned-librarian ups the cool factor for bookish types who may or may not recognize all of the novels and poems alluded to; indeed, that character is one of many sly tricks Alexander uses to get sports-minded guys thinking about the social advantages of being well read.