Elias Wortig
Edge Columist
Booked, a novel written by Kwame Alexander and published in 2016 is the follow-up to the novel The Crossover and deals with the twelve-year old Nick, who’s life turns upside down when he is getting confronted with the reality of life and his passion for soccer.
Nick Hall is a bright grade 8 student who would rather do anything other than pay attention in class. Instead he daydreams about soccer, a girl he likes, and an upcoming soccer tournament. His linguistics-professor father carefully watches his educational progress, requiring extra reading and word study, much to Nick’s chagrin and protest. Fortunately, his best friend, Coby, shares his passion for soccer—and, sadly, the unwanted attention of twin bullies in their school. Nick senses something is going on with his parents, but their announcement that they are separating is an unexpected blow: “it’s like a bombshell / drops / right in the center / of your heart / and it splatters / all across your life.” The stress leads to counseling, and his life is further complicated by injury and emergency surgery. His soccer dream derailed, Nick turns to the books he has avoided and finds more than he expected.
Alexander’s highly anticipated follow-up to The Crossover is a reflective narrative, with little of the first book’s explosive energy. What the mostly free-verse novel does have is a likable protagonist, great wordplay, solid teen and adult secondary characters, and a clear picture of the challenges young people face when self-identity clashes with parental expectations. The soccer scenes are vivid and will make readers wish for more, but the depiction of Nick as he unlocks his inner reader is smooth and believable.
This novel has a unique writing style which makes it very well readable. Every conversation is written as an own chapter with its own heading. The reading level of this novel is very low and probably too low for a student who goes to highschool. It is clear that it is written for middle-school students who just started reading books. And because this novels reading level is this low it is recommend to high-school students because it doesn’t really help improving language, writing or reading skills.
