Booked

The face-off between Nick and Coby’s soccer teams spans nine poems. These tense, action-packed poems highlight important moments during the match and reach a climax when Nick collapses. They are filled with moments of triumph, payback, and suspense. The poems also contain figurative language involving animals like wildebeests, crocodiles, and cheetahs, illustrating the ferocity of the teams’ rivalry. Before the game, Nick watches as his co-captain Pernell uses a racial insult against Coby, just as the Egglestons did during the cafeteria fight. Again, Nick does nothing, while Coby fights back. Nick admires his best friend’s boldness against bullies and his skills on the field; he secretly rejoices when Coby scores a goal against his team: “even you grin / at your best friend’s / genius” (181). Although Nick shares his friend’s talent for soccer, he does not (yet) share Coby’s fearlessness. 

The rhythm of the title poem, “Booked,” helps the reader experience the tension of the characters. Alexander’s short lines and couplet stanzas (stanzas with two lines each) show Nick approaching the goal as his stomach continues hurting: “You almost forget / the pain. Almost. / It’s sharp, like an uppercut. / There’s the goal. / And there’s Coby again. / Running / toward you / like a gazelle” (189). These lines contain two similes (comparisons between unlike things, using the words like or as), likening Nick’s pain with a boxer’s punch and Coby’s speed with that of a gazelle. The poem ends with Coby accidentally tripping Nick and spraining his ankle. “Booked” refers to a penalty a player receives during a soccer game. However, this title has a double meaning for Nick’s story as a whole, which thematically explores the value of books.  

In the poem “Only,” Alexander uses a poetic technique called anaphora (repeating the same word or phrase at the beginnings of poetic lines). In this poem, which also uses end rhyme throughout, Nick lists the reasons for his distress: “ONLY. Three. Weeks. / but Dallas is in one. / ONLY your stomach is shattered / and your dream’s undone” (200). Nick’s health situation prevents him from attending the event he has looked forward to for many weeks, throughout the stress of bullying, his parents’ breakup, and his mom’s absence. Nick wants to drown his sorrows in television, but his father, teachers, and friends have other ideas. Nick’s hospital stay launches a newfound appreciation for reading, both because his father commands it and because April approves of his reading material. 

The book Ms. Hardwick delivers Nick is called All the Broken Pieces, a verse novel like Booked. While speaking about the book with Mr. MacDonald, Nick describes how the main character doesn’t fight back against racial insults and bullying. The librarian asks, “What would you do, Nick?” (227). Nick says, “I’d probably stand up for myself” (227), although he has not resisted bullying when faced with the Eggleston twins or Pernell. The Mac also shows off his Grammy-winning rap skills with All the Broken Pieces; “His flow is sick” (230), Nick remarks. Other poetic techniques in this section include two more acrostic poems (“Hospital” and “This Sucks”) and a poem as a series of text messages (“Texts to April”).