Booked

Book 16 of my 2018 Reading Challenge

Booked by Kwame Alexander

Summary (via the book jacket)
Like Lightning
  You Strike
     Fast and Free
Legs Zoom
  Down Field
    Eyes Fixed 
On The Checkered Ball
  On The Goal
     Ten Yards To Go
Can't Nobody Stop You
   Can't Nobody Cop You...

Nobody can stop Nick Hall - he's a star on the soccer team, cruising in school and getting ready to ask out the girl of his dreams. But then a bombshell announcement shatters his world.
Follow Nick's next moves in this electric and heartfelt novel-in-verse by Kwame Alexander that bends and breaks as it captures all the thrills and setbacks, action and emotion, of a World Cup match!

My Opinion
I read this at the recommendation of my 12-year-old son after he read it.  Brian picked it up at the library based on the cover of a soccer player but what a coincidence - it came along at the perfect time for him as he is recovering from surgery after a soccer injury.  He connected really strongly to it and my rating reflects his opinion, the conversations we were able to have about the character's feelings and how they were similar/different to Brian's as he heals and prepares for activity again, and the way that the author introduces poetry to a new audience by sneaking it in under a sports theme.  

Brian has made a list of the author's other books and will continue to read him, including his Newbery-award winning book The Crossover.  He also said poetry isn't as bad as he thought (his thoughts on poetry were previously "old and sappy") so win-win.

A Few Quotes from the Book
"We will just need to keep you for a few extra days, but by then the wound should be all healed and we'll send you on your way. Sound good?
  As long as it's only a few days, you say. I'm playing in a big soccer tournament next week,

 The doctor, Mom, Dad, even the nurse who's changing your bandage, get all silent and stare at each other. Then at you.

 Crickets."

"He'll be out of school
 for a week,
 or two,
 depending on how he feels, the doctor says to Mom,
 who rests her hand
 on your heart,
 which breaks into a thousand little pieces
 when the doctor adds,
 You'll be back
 playing soccer
 In no time, Nicholas."