Booked
Booked is a spring title that has gotten a lot of buzz, and the reasons are plentiful and obvious. First of all, for those who missed this, this is Kwame Alexander’s follow-up to his Newbery winning The Crossover, and it, like the predecessor, is a novel in verse about sports, but not *really* about sports.
Of course, as we know, The Crossover is not relevant to our conversation here. While elsewhere you might see comparisons between the two novels and find people discussing whether Booked is likely to have the same success, here in this space (and in the actual committee’s discussions) we only look at Booked next to other 2016 titles. Whether it is as good as a previous Newbery winner or a previous title by the same author (or in this case, both) becomes irrelevant when discussing in regards to this year’s Newbery.
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So, now that we have that out of the way, what do we think?
For me, voice is what makes this book compelling. I often find myself lost in novels in verse, as if the author is fighting so hard to create poetry that the voice of the characters is lost to the voice of the author. Kwame Alexander is a master at creating character voice in poetry. Beyond that, it’s not just poetry – it’s strong, beautiful, gripping, and sometimes painful poetry.
Our narrator, Nick, learns the power of words, and his love/hate relationship with words creates a narrative device that brings in humor, and helps to establish a strong sense of character. It also mimics the complicated relationship he has with his parents and that his parents have with each other. Through his words the audience really learns who Nick is. We are confused with him, we cheer him on, we are devastated for him, we grow with him.
Soccer is a device to carry the novel forward, but our story here is about relationships, family, crushes, friendship, and loss.
So, concerns. I didn’t find the pacing perfect. There were moments that dragged a bit and moments that felt a bit rushed. I wonder, too, if I’m the only one who found the poetry a bit uneven? There are pieces where the words left me emotionally drained they were so devastating, and others that felt more like filler. Perhaps, though, this is intentional. Would the emotional pieces be so resonant if the whole book was that intense? Do we need the filler to make our character and story feel real?
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About Sharon McKellar
Sharon McKellar is the Supervising Librarian for Teen Services at the Oakland Public Library in California. She has served on the Rainbow List Committee, the Notable Children’s Recordings Committee, The Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Committee, and the 2015 Caldecott Committee. You can reach her at sharon@mckellar.org.
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There are many of us who struggle with the verse novel form because in a perfect world the poetry and the story are equally amazing, but often there are poems that only move the story forward, but don’t really sing as poetry. I like this one very much, was happy to see it longlisted for the National Book Award, believe it to be one of those half-dozen middle grade pack leaders I referenced on the PAX thread, but hesitate to declare it has a spot on my ballot just yet. I will say that there are several other verse novels this year–GARVEY’S CHOICE, APPLESAUCE WEATHER, UNBOUND, FINDING WONDERS–that we might consider, and I find this one head and shoulders above those (although I like those very much, indeed). Kind of a best in breed argument, here.
I loved BOOKED for the first half, but it eventually crashed pretty hard for me.
The poetry was, uniformly, exquisite, and I agree with Johnathan that it’s top notch above other Novels in Verse I’ve read this year. I was stunned by several poems, re-reading them to allow their effect to fully sink in. Collectively, BOOKED boasts the best poetry I’ve read all year. Even the scant few clunkers (and I can’t emphasize scant enough… maybe a couple?) were easily overpowered by the whole.
I have an issue, though, with theme and treatment of theme. I found the denouement jarring – at the risk of spoiling anything, I’ll just leave it at that. The previous couple hundred pages seemed in direct juxtaposition to that ending. And I didn’t buy the librarian character at all. He came across more as a caricature for me. Particularly the whole “Winning Teacher of the Year without being a teacher” was troublesome. As a middle school librarian, all I do is teach research and literacy skills. Maybe other middle school librarians don’t bear a teaching burden, but I have a feeling many do (why else would we be in a school?). To me, it just seemed tone deaf to the profession. But that’s just me. I get my back up about that sort of thing.
Interesting. I hadn’t noticed the sort of slight and you are right that school librarians certainly DO teach. That is troublesome, but I don’t know for me that it reaches the level of a fatal flaw. More of an annoyance, perhaps. But I also understand why someone closer to the particular profession would react to it more harshly, and that’s totally fair!
I think spoilers are OK on this blog – we want to be able to discuss the whole book and I think that anyone who hasn’t read the book and doesn’t want to be spoiled would be wise to avoid the conversations until they get there. I know I’d love to hear more about what in the ending was jarring for you and why. Let’s discuss it! If it makes you feel better I can add a spoiler warning to the end of the post so people know to avoid the comments if they haven’t finished the book.
I don’t think the school librarian thing is a fatal flaw, either. Rather, it came across as librarian-baiting to me. It’s a minor quibble, but one that matters to me.
Spoiler-y bit:
I wrote about this on Goodreads when I read the book, but here’s a brief recap of my thoughts about the theme’s treatment. A lot of the book seems to focus on this undercurrent of non-violence; that is, there are ways to work toward a solution in a proactive, thoughtful, humanistic way. But all of a sudden, seemingly out of nowhere, Nick reacts to his bully with violence. It created this odd schism for me: what was the point of the book if this is how it ends? Admittedly, the bullying angle in the book didn’t work for me at all. It felt totally tacked on – there wasn’t malice in Nick’s bully when held up to, say, Betty in WOLF HOLLOW (most evil antagonist ever). The bully just didn’t seem like much of a bully… just a typical middle school jerk. Because of these two factors, the book just didn’t gel for me in the end.
Also, the ending with the dragonfly (? – kinda fuzzy – it’s been since April that I read the book) box just smacked of the suitcase in Pulp Fiction. What’s in it? You’ll never knowwwwww…
PS: Sharon, I can’t reply to your response to Jonathan’s post, but I totally lolzed at ” I pictured him getting old, coaching his kid’s team….more along those lines.” Nailed it.
I completely understand your beef with any undervaluation of school librarians, Joe–we only have about 800 in the entire state of CA–but I don’t remember responding the same way that you did to whatever was written, and I don’t have my copy on hand to look at it.
As for spoilers, we gave people fair warning a couple of weeks ago that this was coming, and it’s a spring title, and he won the Newbery for his last novel, and it was just shortlisted for the NBA.
I had a colleague that quibbled with the main character being an avid soccer player, that it didn’t ring true. I didn’t press for details, but wonder if others read it that way . . .
It rang true for me, but I might understand what they are getting at, especially when comparing to The Crossover (which we shouldn’t be doing). Nick *is* a soccer player, and he’s good, but it’s not his life. I didn’t picture Nick going off to college, playing soccer, going pro etc. I pictured him getting old, coaching his kid’s team….more along those lines. And I think that’s OK. I liked that soccer was a passion, but in a “normal” kid way, not necessarily in a super-start kid way. The way I cared about drama club (but haven’t been in a play in decades).
For me, the only flaw was – what was in that dragon box!!! Other than that – I thought it had great characters, the story moved quickly, the poetry really worked. I have had great response from kids reading it (I know that is not a factor here) – I’m with Jonathan, it is on my list, maybe not the top.
I think responses from kids who’ve read the book *are* a factor. In order to judge whether a book has “excellence of presentation for a child audience” you really ought to talk to a child who’s read the book, right? When I vote to elect Newbery members on the ALSC ballot, I read their bios and see if it sounds like they regularly talk to actual kids about books.
This is a great point. It’s kind of a tricky balancing act. Child feedback should inform your opinion, but you shouldn’t simply be voting in their stead either. We’ve talked at length on this blog about the difference between the popular, but superficial book and the one that may only reach a handful of students but has a lasting impact. Every child has the right to be the ideal Newbery reader. It’s not necessarily the book that does the greatest good for the greatest number of readers.
Jonathan beat me to it with his reply, but yes, I agree that it can be tricky. Popularity is not a factor, so a million kids loving it doesn’t make it more of a contender than a book with a smaller audience. A million kids loving it might help speak to some of the criteria, but certainly not to all of the criteria.
I think it is especially important to think about this when talking about books with diverse characters and experiences. If the book may speak more to an underserved audience of children, that might be a smaller audience than other books. It also might not be the children that you happen to have easy access to, in terms of working with the book and real live children. That doesn’t, though, make it less valuable or less distinguished.
One thing I noticed that I appreciated very much was the variety of poetic forms. It fit the idea that a kid was writing them as well as keeping things interesting.
I have a confession… I never read THE CROSSOVER. So it surely won’t impact my conversation around this title!
As for BOOKED, I was a little underwhelmed. I thought Alexander did a good job of creating character voice through the verse (as Sharon pointed out is not always the case). I thought Nick was a well conceived character, but he was the only character in the book I can say that about. Coby, April, the parents, the teachers… They were just there.
My biggest problem with the book was that the verse was about all it had going for it. If this story was told in typical narrative prose, I’m afraid it would not be very compelling. I just felt that in the end, not a whole lot happened in BOOKED. Kind of a run of the mill, year in the life of, typical 7th grader. In fact, I feel like Alexander had to include plot twists like Nick’s injury, just to give the story a little more. The only thing I could see anyone arguing as “distinguished” is the verse poetry, I’m just not sure that alone, should be enough to bump this title to the top of anyone’s list.
I agree that the voice and verse itself were the most distinguished characteristics of Booked. When reading it for the second time, I read it out loud to myself, and that made a big difference to some of the poems that on first read I thought fell flat. I especially appreciated Alexander’s depiction of Nick’s mother and their relationship. My biggest problems with the book seem to be similar to other commenters – I feel that whereas plot and theme is concerned, Booked fell short. I think this was due to too many I would agree with Joe that the end of the bullying storyline was jarring and added to my confusion as to theme. The dragonfly box storyline also seemed unnecessary. While I enjoyed this novel, it’s not one of my top contenders this year.
I just went to the shelf to find passages of Booked that stand out as exemplary but it’s checked out. Drat! But I guess that’s a good thing! I liked Booked very much. I found it compelling throughout. I like that it shows a family going through a divorce that wasn’t nasty and horrid. The parents are respectful and love their son. I like that the mom was deciding to pursue her dreams deferred. I don’t know if these themes rise to distinguished level because family separation is certainly a well explored theme, however I appreciated the nuance and sensitivity of the presentation. I found the language exemplary. The poetry has a rhythm and roll to it. I heard Kwame Alexander’s unique and amazing voice reading it to me throughout. The play with language and puns was just a delight. I especially loved the word play with his English teacher and I also appreciated her understated wisdom–she “gets him” more than he thinks she does. I liked the realistic kids in his class. I don’t remember the bullying aspect bothering me but I wish I had the book so I could look back at that. I enjoyed the lively and interesting school librarian; I am always pleased to see a cool school librarian. The comment about librarians not really teaching did rub me the wrong way at first but then I processed it a bit and realized that kids don’t really always see me as a teacher. I think they often experience their class time with me as a “special;” like a bit of a treat or something to look forward to in their day. Many of them may not realize that me showing them how to cite their sources or how to access a database counts as “teaching.” And I thought the Dragonfly Box ending was brilliant. I did not see Pulp Fiction so it didn’t seem like a rip-off to me. I was frustrated and then grinning when I realized he just left us hanging. I love what that is going to do to my young readers! More please, Kwame Alexander!
The only quibble I had was that the librarian and the teacher rode off in the sunset together at the end. I didn’t feel that coming and so it didn’t ring true for me. It felt a bit contrived. Fatal flaw? Perhaps. I appreciate everyone’s criticisms here. I will re-read this one before January with those thoughts in mind. This one is still a top contender for me.
My copy is checked out too, so I cannot confirm, but I THINK the teacher/librarian matchup was fore shadowed in the story. I do not remember being surprised by that plot turn! I, too had not seen “Pulp Fiction”, and I too love how middle schoolers react to the mystery!
I’m glad to know that a bit of consideration to the reader is possible in the selection process. I often hear adults wonder that the awards are selected with no care whether the book will be enjoyed by children!