The One Thing You'd Save by Linda Sue Park, illustrated by Robert Sae-Heng

The One Thing You'd Save by Linda Sue Park,

illustrated by Robert Sae-Heng

Clarion Books/HMH Publishing. 2021, 72 pages

Have you ever wondered what you would save in a fire? No? Well, I have and it turns out, when faced with that reality, I tried to save my computer.* 

Linda Sue Park has posed the same question in her latest work of fiction. It all begins when middle grade teacher Ms. Chang gives her students a homework assignment challenging her students to think about the Most Important Thing they would rescue if their home were burning. But it can only be one thing, size and weight don't matter, and it doesn't have to be family members or pets because they are already safe, much to the relief of one student who would want to save her slowly walking arthritic Nana.

The one most important thing these students pick vary from a cell phone to call 911 and a dad's wallet to have money once they are out of their burning home, to an ugly blue sweater, to a Mets-Cubs program, to a sketchbook full of flaming dragons. One student silently decides they would take nothing, glad to see their total dump-of-a-building burn down. 

But as the students begin to go into why they would save what they think is their one most precious thing the tone of the discussion changes. That ugly blue sweater links three generations of a family together. One grandmother knit a blue sweater for the girl's father, then another grandmother unraveled it and made a sweater for her. A collection of 93 china animal figurines, prizes in boxes of tea, connects two friends to each other more deeply than meets the eye.

Slowly, the discussion about objects becomes one of memories attached to those objects. I loved reading that process, and how the student's stories evolved. Even Ms. Chang, who thought she would save her 18 grade books and class pictures, changes her mind about what's important. In the end, what makes this book so interesting is what the students and teacher learn about themselves and their classmates.

In her Author's Note, Linda Sue Park calls this a collection of poems, but it really reads like a coherent whole. At first, it may seem confusing, but it won't take long to figure out the different voices of the students and the teacher, who actually has her own font. Park has used an ancient traditional Korean poetic form called sijo (SHEE-zho). But while sijo generally has three lines of thirteen to seventeen syllables, she didn't stick strictly to that structure, proving how organic nature of poetic forms can evolve over time. 

Artist Robert Sae-Heng's grey-toned illustration are sketched in shades of grey, black and white reminding me of the kind of charcoal that burnt wood becomes and giving the accompanying class discussion an after-the-fire atmosphere. And although the discussion takes place in the classroom, as each student talks about what they would rescue, Sae-Heng has given readers an intimate view into their rooms at home showing their meaningful item, for example, the blue sweater:

The One Thing You'd Save is a thought-provoking, conversation generating work. Even though my young readers are way too young for this book, I asked them the same question Ms. Chang asked her students, and the answers were just as amazing. There's a lot to think about in this slender novel-in-verse that asks a question we have all probably thought about at one time or another.   

So...what do you hold most precious that you would want to save in a fire?  

You can find a useful discussion guide for this book HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 8+

This book was an eARC gratefully received from NetGalley

*Did I save my computer? Indirectly, yes. The fire wasn't in my apartment, but fire balls dropped into my bedroom air conditioner and a fireman came charging in and knocked it out of the window, along with my windows, curtains, and a bunch of books I had on the window sill. Luckily, my air conditioner wasn't plugged in or it would have resulted in an electrical fire, which would have been devastating for everyone in the building. I couldn't disconnect the computer I wanted to save from the cable modem, so I put it under the desk and left. If I had left it on the desk, it would have been destroyed by water damage coming from the apartment with the fire. The next day, I went out and bought an external drive for backup. What would I save if this happened again? The scrapbook I made of my Kiddo's life, which I put in an easy to grab place. 

Unsettled by Reem Faruqi

 

Middle schooler Nurah Haqq, 13, and her older brother Owais are not too happy when their father decides to uproot his family, moving them from Karachi, Pakistan to Peachtree City, Georgia. For Nurah, it means leaving behind beloved grandparents, even if her Dadi (grandmother on her father's side) who has Alzheimer's no longer remembers her name, and best friend Asna, and so, so many of the things she loves about living in Karachi. 

Arriving in Peachtree City, the family lives in one room in an extended stay hotel. Like her brother Owais, Nurah is a swimmer, and finds relief from feeling alone and overwhelmed at the pool in the Recreation Center. Both decide to tryout for the swim team, and that's when Nurah makes her first real friend, a girl named Stahr, who shows up on the second day of tryouts completely covered in a long sleeve shirt and tights, just like Nurah. It turns out that Stahr is covering the black and blue bruises because father regularly hits her with his belt. The two new friends begin have lunch together at school and get to know each other's secrets. Stahr lives 8 houses away from the house the Haqq family buys and moves into. When her mother is late getting home, Stahr goes to Nurah home, and apparently develops a real liking for the foods Nurah's mother serves them at teatime.  

Later, when Nurah's mother has a miscarriage and becomes depressed, it is Stahr's mother, Penelope, who has had a number of miscarriages, that shows up at their house, helping her mother get over the loss, and becoming her mother's first American friend. 

In Karachi, Nurah was one of the loudest in school but in Peachtree City, she's very quiet, At one point, however, Nurah stands up to the two bullies who relentlessly pick on the school bus monitor, a man who stutters and has lost his left arm. The bullying stops, but the boys try to make Nurah pay later. But when she should use her voice, Nurah lets her jealousy over her brother's swimming ability get the best of her, and she keeps silent after seeing two older boys going into the Rec Center's men's locker room, knowing their intention is to teach Owais a lesson. 

Acknowledging her own complicity in the attack on Owais is a pivotal moment for Nurah, who begins to realize that standing out by being her true self and being true to herself is more important than trying to conform to being someone she is not. 

Written in lyrical free verse, Unsettled is a powerful story loosely based on the author's own move from United Arab Emirates to the United States when she was 13. I loved the details that Faruqi has included  which give this book a feeling of authenticity. I especially love food details because food is like a shorthand way of telling readers so much about a culture - what they eat, when they eat, how it is prepared. But readers will also find a number of other important thought-provoking themes touched on in Nurah's story, including abuse, bullying, colorism, depression, and memory loss, as well as adjusting to a new country and a different way of life. Yet, I think most readers will feel empathy and hope rather than overwhelmed by it all. 

I thought Nurah was a wonderfully flawed, yet inspiring character in this coming of age novel, and I felt that Faruqi did a great job of fleshing out her other characters, although I wish I had gotten to know Nurah's Baba better. It was because of his job they made such a big move, yet he didn't feel developed enough. 

Nurah's story has so many poignant moments in it, moments that are specific to being uprooted from everything that you love, moments that are specific to a newly arrived-in-America Muslim girl, and moments that everyone can relate to, all of which makes this such a compelling book to read. 

I couldn't recommend this book highly enough and the good news is that you will find a delicious sounding recipe for Nurah's Aloo Kababs that she brings in her lunch and which I am definitely going to try. 

Unsettled will be available on May 11, 2021.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+

This book was an ARC received from the publisher Harper/HarperCollins

Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc by David Elliott

I've never really had much of an interest in Joan of Arc. I knew who she was, of course, and what she had done, thanks to a hand-me-down Classic Illustrated Comics collection. And I did go see Saint Joan with Condola Rashad on Broadway, which was excellent. But that was basically it...until I read Voices. WOW! Here was a book that blew me away from the first poem to the last.

In Voices: the Final Hours of Joan of Arc, David Elliott offers readers an amazing perspective on the life and final moments of this courageous young woman (she was, after all, still a teenager when she died). In well-crafted and carefully constructed, often visceral poems, Elliott begins Joan's story at the end of her life, as she is tied to a stake, about to be burned alive as a traitor. He then recreates Joan's life, beginning with her visions through to her military triumph of restoring Charles VIII to power, his ultimate betrayal of her, her subsequent trials, and finally, her execution. Throughout this fictionalized biography in verse, Elliott has carefully and consciously chosen the voices who gets to tell her story besides Joan herself.

 The poems are amazing. The language is affective without being sentimental. There is energy in Elliott's choice of line breaks, coming at just the right time to maintain the lyricism and musicality of each poem - in other words, the lines are neither too long nor too short.

The imagery that each of the poems creates is clear and fresh; there is a specificity of detail in each poem, and provides the reader with imaginative sensory details without being overwhelming.

And Elliott created these images that tell Joan's story using a variety of poetic forms, some dating back to the medieval period, along with a diversity of voices besides Joan. Some of these voices include that of Charles VIII, her father, even personification of objects close to Joan, including her sword, her armor, the crossbow that wounded her and the fire that is so lovingly consuming her.

Elliott has also made effective use of direct prose quotes from the transcripts of Joan's trials. He has creatively recounted the life of Joan of Arc in a somewhat three dimensional sense, not an easy accomplishment in a book, allowing the reader to look at all sides of Joan's story and to draw their own conclusions as to her guilt or innocence.

And Elliot does all this while interrogating ideas about Joan's gender identity, her class, her decision to be a knight instead of a peasant girl remaining on the family farm until she marries, as well as her innocence in view of the politics of the time and the reason for the guilty verdict at her trial.

Elliott has taken a medieval heroine, caught up in the politics of her day, and brought her into the 21st century where her story will definitely resonate with today's readers.

Small wonder that Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc won the Claudia Lewis Award for poetry awarded by the Bank Street Children's Book Committee. Sadly, the Coronavirus meant canceling our awards ceremony this year. However, David Elliott was kind enough to send us a video recording, which you can also enjoy:

This book is recommended for readers age 13+

This book was an ARC gratefully received from publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

April is 

Emmy in the Key of Code by Aimee Lucido

Emmy, 12, and her parents have just moved from Wisconsin to San Francisco so that her dad can pursue his dream of being a pianist in the symphony orchestra there. Her mom, an opera singer, has given that up and taken a regular job in order to make the move. Both parents are very musical, but no matter how hard she tries and no matter how much she loves and knows about music, Emmy just doesn't have musical bone in her body. Besides, past attempts at musical performance have left her with a bad case of stage fright. Now, however, she faces the task of making new friends at a new school and it's not easy. Each time she tries to introduce herself, she's interrupted. Until, finally, in computer class, a girl with braids introduces herself to Emmy.

It doesn't take long for Emmy and Abigail to become good friends, nor does it take long for Emmy to connect with computer coding, and teacher Frankie Delaney, a vibrant young woman who clearly loves what she does. Abigail has a beautiful singing voice, has been singing in the San Francisco Children's Choir for years and hangs out friends with a group of girls at school who want her to audition with them for a singing group called Honey Bees. But Abigail has been hiding the fact that she would rather code than sing, though she continues to act like being put into the computer class was a mistake. Emmy, hoping that Abigail will be her new best friend, is hurt when Abigail continues to eat lunch with her friends, leaving Emmy to eat alone.

Meanwhile, struggling with constant feelings of not fitting in and not being comfortable with who she is, Emmy must also deal with a budding misogynist bully named Francis in computer class, who misses no opportunity to let her know he thinks she is inferior and that there is no place in coding for girls. Adding to that is a falling out with Abigail, who refuses to respond to Emmy's apologies.

But after the class learns that their teacher is seriously ill, can animosities are put aside so that the students can still showcase their end of term coding projects in front of parents, teachers, and students to honor their teacher?

When I first began reading Emmy in the Key of Code, I thought I would be reading a novel about a middle grader girl who needs to find herself and her own voice in a completely new environment. Boy, was I wrong! Well, it is that, but more, so much more. It is a novel in verse, written from Emmy's point of view. And as Emmy becomes more proficient at coding, Lucido manages to skillfully weave in some basic Java code in places, creating a kind of poetry in code. Not an easy task, but she pulls it off beautifully. And the best part is that readers don't need to know coding to read Emmy's story, but do learn some coding along with her. Java terminology is explained within the text and in a glossary, as are musical terms.

One of the things I really liked is that Lucido didn't give Emmy a dead parent or two in her coming of age story. Instead, she took Emmy out of her comfortable environment in Wisconsin and set down in a completely new place, where her parents are so busy with their own problems of adjusting to the changes. Isolated from parents, friends, and teachers really highlights Emmy's feeling of not fitting in, but allows her to explore and discover her own identity and creativity away from parental interference or expectations of who she should be. It made for a very interesting journey. 

Young readers will also discover not only a good story but might even catch some of Frankie Delaney's enthusiasm for coding and her admiration for the women who were pioneered computers and programming during WWII while men were off fighting (pg. 154-55). In fact, pair this with Kate Hannigan's fun speculative fiction novel Cape (The League of Secret Heroes), which centers around the actual six women working on a programable computer called Eniac in Philadelphia in WWII.

I loved being pleasantly surprised by this novel and Emmy in the Key of Code should appeal to young readers whether or not they have an interest in learning to code, though the computer geek in me thinks all kids should learn some coding. Maybe this will stir up interest in it when they see what Emmy and her class can do.

A Reader's Guide can be downloaded HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was gratefully provided to me by the publisher, Versify, an imprint of HMH

Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein written and illustrated by Lita Judge

Here is a brilliant new fictionalized biography about Mary Shelley by Lita Judge, just in time for the  200th anniversary of the publication of her best known work, Frankenstein. I have to admit that when I read Frankenstein in junior high school, I never really thought much about the author. I was reading it on my own then, and even when I reread it in college, Mary Shelley was basically ignored (perhaps my professor was a fan of Roland Barthes' The Death of the Author). Of course, we all learned that Frankenstein was the result of a challenge by Lord Byron to his companions to write a better horror story than the ones he had been reading,

and that Mary took up the challenge, and created her masterpiece. Oh, how I wish I had had Mary's Monster when I was first reading Frankenstein.

Written in free verse from Mary Shelley's point of view, Judge has created this fictionalized biography of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley that will change the reader's perceptions of her and give them real insight and a new appreciation for both the author and her novel. Judge has divided Mary's story into nine parts, mirroring the nine months it took Mary to write Frankenstein. There is also an Introduction by Judge, and a Prologue by Mary's Creature.

The story then begins in 1812 with Mary on a boat, traveling alone from England to Scotland at her step-mother's insistence, to live with friends because the debts of the family business have increased considerably. On the trip, Mary recalls her childhood - the death of her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, in 1797 when she is only 11 days old, her caring, unconventional father, her loving step-sister Fanny, and favorite visits from poets like Samuel Taylor Coleridge. But this all quickly morphs into unhappiness when Mary's father remarries a cold, ambitious woman, who doesn't get alone with Mary and demands that she be sent away.

After two years, Mary returns home to London in 1814, and it is then that she meets and falls in love with aspiring poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary runs off with him at age 16, leaving England to live together, first in Paris, then Switzerland. Shelley is already married to another woman named Harriet, but has convinced Mary that his marriage to her is over. Mary soon finds herself pregnant with Shelley's baby.

Disowned by her father, Mary's life continues to be one of unhappiness, disappointment, betrayal, broken promises, and loss. Nevertheless, she manages to write Frankenstein while still in her teens and pregnant.

Mary's Monster is an extraordinary book, a perfect melding of both romantic and gothic fiction, two genres that were popular in Mary Shelley's day. And as if her nuanced poetry weren't enough to pull the reader into Mary's life, Judge has included over 300 pages of black and white watercolor illustrations that add to the ominous atmosphere permeating this work. Nor does Judge pull any punches or skirt around the hard issues and events in Mary's life. Because she includes the fact that Mary and Shelley made love beside her mother's grave (and most likely conceived their first child there), the deaths of Mary's children, the use of opium by her husband and his friends, the suicides of her half-sister and Shelley's first wife, I would recommend this book for mature teen readers - and I do highly recommend it.  

Although this is a fictionalized biography, Judge has included back matter giving more information about Mary Shelley and Frankenstein, as well as an Author's Note, a list of the people in Mary's life and what became of them, a list of books that they were reading, notes for each part of the book, and a Bibliography.

Frankenstein was the creation of one man and composed of the parts of many. Perhaps Mary felt like she was too -

Something to think about as you read the hauntingly poignant fictionalized biography.

You can find an extensive, useful Teacher's Guide for Mary's Monster HERE

You can find a very enlightening interview with Lita Judge about the creation of Mary's Monster HERE

Lita Judge has shared a very interesting timeline of her writing and research process that you can read HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 15+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL

Unbound: A Novel in Verse by Ann E. Burg

Grace has been living in a slave cabin on a tobacco plantation all her life, but as soon as she turns 9, she is told she will be sent to live in the big house and serve the Master and Missus instead of remaining with her family and helping out in the garden and taking care of her two younger brothers. It also means not seeing her mother, her mother's husband, Uncle Jim, or her elderly Aunt Sara anymore. And all because her eyes are blue and her skin color is so light she could pass for white.

And even though she is told all the time to keep her eyes down and her mouth shut, Grace can't help but feel the injustice of the treatment of slaves by these cruel, selfish owners. Now working in the kitchen with another slave named Aunt Tempie, she begins to resent seeing her so compliant and intimated by the Master and Missus.  But it is also Aunt Tempie who eventually lets Grace sneak away to see her family on Saturday nights, at great risk to both of them.

When their other light-skinned slave, Jordon, runs away, it falls to Grace to now work in the kitchen and to serve the family at meals. Seeing more of the Missus only makes Grace's resentment of her increase, until finally she mutters something that is overheard. The Missus decides to teach Grace a lesson. Grace overhears her telling her husband that putting her mother and younger brothers on the auction block might finally teach Grace who she is and where she belongs.

Afraid that this is a real threat, Grace warns her family that it is time to run - immediately. It doesn't take long to get ready and leave in the dead of night. Nor does it take long before they hear the sound of a galloping horse, ridden by a paddyroller. After narrowly escaping this slave patroller, thanks to a trap made by the elusive OleGeorgeCooper, a severally scarred (from burns, beatings, and brandings by his master) runaway slave. OleGeorgeCooper has been living in the Great Dismal Swamp of Virginia for years now and knows it well. He quickly leads Grace and her family to the cave that he has been living in, a safe place for them to rest, and plan their next move.

Throughout their stay with OleGeorgeCooper, Grace discovers that there is much going on among slaves that she has no idea about, and has never even noticed, and that people aren't necessarily who they seem to be, including Aunt Tempie, even though she watches everything so carefully.

Unbound is written entirely in Grace's voice, in lyrical verse that sounds very much like dialect and really captures the dichotomy slaves lived with everyday. On the one hand, Ann Burg shows how slaves were subject to the cruel whimsey of their owners as a way of keeping them under control and subservient, on the other hand, there is their "home' life away from the house and fields, where family members were the most important, most cherished part of their lives in the antebellum south. There is no question then that it is time to run, when it is decided to sell Grace's mother and brothers to teach her a lesson - Burg makes very clear this is not an empty threat.

Grace is a headstrong girl who is absolutely aware of the unfairness of slavery, and sometimes has a hard time keeping things to herself. And though she is afraid of the gators and snakes in the Big Swamp they must walk through to find freedom, she is more afraid of the power the master and missus have over their lives.

Although Grace's story is fiction, Burg write in her Author's Note that it is based on experiences of real people. I had expected Unbound to be a story about the Underground Railway, so I was surprised when the family found themselves in the Great Dismal Swamp. It turns out that this was a place where many fugitive slaves found refuge. These fugitives were called maroons, from the Spanish word cimarrón meaning wild or untamed. I was curious about the Great Dismal Swamp and found this map that gives one an idea of just how big it really is:

Unbound is historical fiction that tells an unusual story about slavery and escape and is a wonderful addition to this body of literature. I highly recommend it for all young readers.

Please Note - this is not for young readers, but I am including it for teachers and librarians: If you would like to know more about the slave narratives the Burg read in preparation for writing Unbound, the Library of Congress has a digital collection called Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was sent to me by the publisher, Scholastic Press

Garvey's Choice by Nikki Grimes

Garvey's dad always wanted his son to be a jock, someone he could shoot baskets with and bond with over sports talk. But middle grader Garvey would much rather settle in with a good sci-fi novel, learn more about astronomy and listen to his favorite music. Garvey has a best friend, Joe, who shares his love of music, and with whom he likes to play chess and make up knock knock jokes.  Garvey's older sister Angie is the family jock - a great soccer player. Why can't his dad be happy with that and just accept Garvey for who he is?

It's a question that causes Garvey to overeat, pushing his feeling down with food and soda. Kids have always teased and bullied him because of his weight, even his sister indulges in what she calls good natured kidding about it, never thinking about how it hurts her brother.

So Garvey is understandably dreading the new school year that is about to start. And the cruel teasing begins immediately. But at least there is Joe to eat lunch with and Joe who encourages Garvey to try out for the chorus. In chorus, Garvey meets Manny, an albino boy. The two become good friend, hanging out together when Joe has a schedule change. Manny has accepted that he has albinism and just doesn't care what others think about it.

In chorus, Garvey learns to accept what he can to well (with a little help from his friends), and to his surprise he discovers his dad also has a love of music, especially the music of Luther Vandross. When Garvey is given the coveted tenor solo for the chorus's school concert, he finally finds a way to connect with his father and make him proud of who Garvey is. And the confidence Garvey gains from his talented singing begins to change how people see and treat Garvey in school, as well.

Garvey's Choice is a short, poignant novel in verse about friendship and self-acceptance and I think Garvey's journey is one that many readers will be able to relate to, whether they sooth their hurt feelings with food or other means. The middle school years are a time when kids are trying to not stand out from the crowd so it is encouraging to read a novel that deals with the kind of bullying being different can lead to.

Nikki Grimes is one of my favorite verse novelists. She gives her readers not just a wonderful story, but she also introduces them to different verse forms in her books and does them all so well. For Garvey's Choice, she used Tanka, an ancient Japanese form meaning "short poem." Grimes gives a fuller explanation of this poetic form and her modern use of it at the end of the book. Short poems also make this an excellent novel for reluctant readers.

You might want to consider pairing Garvey's Choice with Planet Middle School, another novel in verse about a young girl entering a new phase in her life. In my review of that book, I said that one of the things I loved about Planet Middle School is that "the protagonist is African American but it is not about being African American per se, it is about being a girl entering a new phase of her life and that makes the story really universal." The same holds true for Garvey's Choice.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL

FEBRUARY IS BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Booked by Kwame Alexander

Twelve-year-old Nick Hall and his best friend Coby Lee both live to play soccer, on the field and virtually in a game called FIFA.  They may be best friends off the soccer field, but on it, they are on different teams and opponents set on winning.  And best of all, both teams are been selected to go to Texas for the annual Dr. Pepper Dallas Cup,

At school, Nick tends to daydream a little to much in Ms. Hartwick's Honors English class.  He's also being bullied by twin brothers Dean and Don, which is a real problem, especially when they start kicking his backpack around and telling him to stay away from April Farrow, 'cause she's Dean's girl.  Problem is, Nick is seriously crushing on April, who is just flirty enough to give him hope, despite the bully brothers.

At home, Nick's dad, a professor of linguistics, doesn't care as much for soccer as he does for his son's education and especially about his vocabulary.  Consequently, he has Nick reading the dictionary he wrote called Weird and Wonderful Words.  His mom is a stay-at-home, which is nice for special breakfast meals, nice hot dinners and for getting rides to school with Coby and avoiding the school bus and the bully brothers.

Life is pretty good as far as Nick is concerned, until a niggling suspicion that things aren't going as well between his parents as they had in the past.  Sure enough, his parents tell him that they are separating.  His mother, who used to train horses, is returning to that profession and that means she will be living in Kentucky, and returning home for short visits.

Once his mom is gone, life at home becomes a very different matter.  His normally stern father begins to feel like a tyrant, and Nick refuses to answer his mother's texts or take her calls.  As his life becomes more and mores stressed, Nick begins going to counseling to help him cope.   But it is a ruptured appendix and a kick in the ankle during a soccer match that finally take Nick out of play and offer him a chance for reflection and change, not to mention time to finally read some really good books.  Will he put it all to good use?  

If Booked reminds you of Crossover, it is only because they have some similarities.  Both are written in free verse, from the protagonists point of view.  Both protagonists are athletes, good at what they do, and both come from intact families that are put into crisis.  But don't let their comparability fool you, they are both excellent stories in their own right.

Nick, as you may have gathered, is a very reluctant reader with a very big vocabulary, and who ultimately discovers just what he has been missing.  OK, it's because of April that Nick really read All the Broken Pieces, but so what.  He read it and he liked it, and went on to read Out of the Dust.  April loves to read and even thinks the dictionary Nick's father wrote is cool.  Does who influences a reluctant reader or why they do really matter?  No, because once you  find yourself immersed in a few books, you are hooked.  I saw that with my own reluctant reader who went on to be an English major.

Booked is about family, friends, and change, but for me, the most important lesson that Nick gets comes from his eccentric Grammy-winning-rapper-turned-school-librarian, Mr. MacDonald, a/k/a "The Mac" who tells him:

Nick, the river is always turning and bending. You never

know where it's going to go and where you'll end up.  Fo/-

llow the bend.  (pg301)

It almost goes without saying that Kwame Alexander's poetic novels are lyrical, masterfully put together to paint a multi-layered picture.  And for that reason, his novel in verse packs a powerful punch simply by giving readers a realistic and relatable portrait of middle school life.  But the thing I love most is that Alexander shows young readers that it is cool to be smart.

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was an ARC from the publisher

FYI: to be booked in soccer - when a player has committed a serious offense or foul, they are given a yellow cautionary card by the referee.  If they commit another serious offense or foul, they are given a red card, must leave the field immediately and the referee writes done the details in his book (at least that's how I understand the term booked).

April is Poetry Month