1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alexander, Kwame. Booked. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016. ISBN: 978-0-544-57098-6.
2. PLOT SUMMARY
Nick Hall loves soccer and is a little sweet on April Farrow in his dance class, but he feels trapped by unfair expectations established by his teacher, his parents (particularly his father), and his social group. All he wants to do is be himself, but bullies, relationships, and his parents' rocky marriage keep getting in his way.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Nick Hall plays on an Under 15 soccer team. When he's on the field he feels more like himself. He has a mission. He understands where to put his feet, how to move the ball, and he values his relationships with his coach and his teammates. Playing soccer is more natural to Nick than breathing, which is good, because he feels like a fish out of water in his every day life, where he tunes out his teacher, Ms. Hardwick, and is forced to read the dictionary his father, the linguistics professor, wrote. Nick relies on his best friend, Cody, his close relationship with his mother, and soccer to get him through.
Nick feels emotions intensely, and author Kwame Alexander creates a lot of emotional situations in this book for the reader to transcend with Nick. First of all, his parents are having marital problems. His mother, who he has a great relationship with, takes a job in a far away state, and leaves him with his father, which isn't an ideal situation. "When you subtract/ a mother/ from the equation/ what remains is negative" (59).
Alexander writes the whole book in free verse poetry, which allows readers to tear through it at a lightning pace, without missing any of the emotional highs and lows. Reluctant readers may love how quickly they can finish the book, but they'll also love that Alexander's main character also hates reading, which is unfortunate, because he definitely inherited his father's love of words. But if he had a choice, Nick would rather make the choice to learn words on his own than be forced to read the dictionary every day.
Alexander's writing about the contemporary, early teenage experience is very authentic. Unlike his prior work in The Crossover, he is less explicit about the race of the protagonist in this book. Sure, Nick listens to rap music, but that isn't a definite signifier of any definite cultural background. The silhouetted image on the cover allows for readers to insert their own concept of who that child may be and what they look like into the story. As a teen, Nick deals with almost universal young adult issues like bullies, discomfort around girls, racism, and inattention in the classroom. Alexander also writes Nick as a warm person, who loves the school librarian, Mac, and his quirky t-shirts and mysterious dragonfly box. The most realistic aspect of Alexander's story is how Nick frames his own version of reality versus the plane of reality his parents live on in the adult world.
Nick identifies this generational disconnect in a fiery rage when he is bullied in the street and gets his bike stolen and his father's reply is "why'd you let them take it?" (140) His father was so disconnected to the reality of Nick's life that he was unable to identify his son was in need of support and assistance -- even after Nick arrived home late with a bleeding lip, and missing a bike. To Nick, his father's inability to empathize and understand was just as hurtful and controlling as the physical and emotional violence he endured on the street. It is also representative of a lot of struggles in connecting that teens and parents have during a developmental time when teenagers are trying to work their way out of the nest at home.
As a whole, Booked defies the idea that misguided and wrong idea that books written by authors of different cultures and races are not for all people. Booked is easily accessible, well composed, and never strays from its commitment to portraying an authentic teen voice.
4. AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPTS
National Book Award Long List
Kirkus Best of 2016
2017 - ILA-CBC-Children's Choice List
From Horn Book Magazine
"Alexander understands reluctant readers deeply, and here hands them a protagonist who is himself a smart, reading-averse kid who just wants to enjoy the words that interest him on his own terms."
From Publishers Weekly
"Emotionally resonant and with a pace like a player on a breakaway."
5. CONNECTIONS
Booked is a the second free verse book regarding boys and sports that Kwame Alexander has written. His first, The Crossover, won numerous awards, including a Newbery Honor. You can read my review of The Crossover in this blog from earlier in the year. Although the two boys are different characters and play different sports, classes could read the books in tandem and compare and contrast the adolescent/coming of age stories of Nick from Booked and Josh from The Crossover.
Both books read like a journal or a diary. Have students give writing free verse a try. How fast can they write, not in terms of actual speed in writing, but can they make their word choices flow as freely as Alexander's? Soccer and basketball may not be their areas of interest, but positive influences can come from many areas in a person's life. Let students choose their passion and try to write about their experiences each day for 2-4 weeks. Then have the class work on creating their own books, with a silhouetted picture that illustrates their identified passion, so it mimics the art on the front of Alexander's books.
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