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Authors: Kwame Alexander

Booked

BOOK: Booked
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Contents

Title Page

Contents

Copyright

Dedication

Gameplay

Wake Up Call

Questions

Why couldn't your dad

In the elementary school spelling bee

Giddy-up

Mom

Blackjack on the Way to School

Ms. Hardwick's Honors English class

The Beautiful Game

The thing about daydreaming

Busted

After School

At Miss Quattlebaum's School of Ballroom Dance & Etiquette

Chivalry

The Pact

Ever since first grade

Best Friend

Bragging Rights

The Letter

Dad's back in town

Trash Talk

PUT. THE. PHONE. AWAY, Nicholas

Trouble

Dean and Don Eggelston

Fists of Fury

The library door

When you walk inside

Welcome to the Dragonfly Café

Hey, DJ, Drop That Beat

Skip MacDonald

Huckleberry Finn-ished

Class ends

Usually at dinner

Breaking the Silence

No Heads-Up

Thought

Broken

For the rest of the week

Conversation Before the Match

Playing Soccer

Game two

No Problemo

Problemo

Conversation with Mom

Dear Nick

You Want to Talk About April, but Coby's Mind Is on the Dallas Cup.

Nothing Good About Bye

The Way a Door Closes

The Next Day

In the hallway

Conversation with The Mac

First Dinner Without Mom

I'm sorry

Hanging Out at Coby's

Conversation

Let's call April, he says

Home Alone

Why You No Longer Play Football

The next morning

The Homework Questions

Texts from Mom

Texts to Mom

Jackpot

Insomnia

Standing in the lunch line

Big Trouble

Stand Up

Back to Life

Do-Over

Consequences

The day after

Conversation

The Last Time You Got into a Fight

Last night you couldn't watch TV

April is

Caught

The walk to her desk

Then She Smiles

Limerence

Coby's Back

Blackjack in the Library

You and Coby

Note from April

Change of Plans

Conversation After Soccer

Conversation with April

The only thing

Probability

Boy rides his bike

Kentucky

Breakdown

A Good Cry

What are you doing here?

1 on 1

This morning

Conversation with Mom

And Just Like That, Things Are Out of Control Again

Dressed in camouflage sneaks

Conversation with The Mac

Shrink

You miss

When Mom Starts Crying, Dad Takes Her Out, Leaving You Alone with the Shrink

Doctor
Fraud

Chimichangas

How Did We Get Here?

Introductions

Alarm Clock

Cool?

Not Cool

Bad

After Soccer Practice

You wake up at four a.m.

The Big Match

Game On

Score

Right before halftime

Guess Who's Back?

Halftime

Coach asks

Second Half

Nine Minutes Left. Can't This Be Over Already?

Booked

Hospital

Ankle sprains

Surgery

Fact

How are you feeling, Nicky?

Bad

Worse

Only

The End

TV Therapy

This Sucks

New Rules

Mom kisses you goodbye

The Next Morning

Breakfast

Conversation with Coby

Dear Skip

Rapprochement
*

Visitors' Day

Hello, Nicholas

This has got to be a
sweven
.

You're not really into baseball

All the Broken Pieces

The Next Day

Conversation with The Mac

Read Aloud

He sounds

Texts to April

Text from April

Discharged

Driving Home

Out of the Dust

You dial April's number

Phone Conversation

Books You Find on Google

Dreams Come True

Today, Coby called

Knock Knock

Twain
*

Nerds and Words

A Long Walk to Water

Your Suggestion

Bye, Nick

Family Meeting

Text to Coby

When April

Rock Horse Ranch

Afterward

You absolutely love

Thank You

Later, at Dinner

Conversation with Mom and Dad

What happens to a dream destroyed?

On the way to the airport

Sinking

Conversation with Dr. Fraud

Regular Communication

At Miss Quattlebaum's

Regular Communication

After School, You Stop in to See The Mac

Playoffs

Text from Mom

Regular Communication

Winnifred may be a gadfly
*

Waiting at the Bus Stop When a Police Car Pulls Up

Thirty Minutes Later

I've been thinking

Conversation with Dad

Hey, Mom

Mom Calls Immediately

Blue Moon River

Inside the Bag Is, Get This, FREEDOM

Sub

After the Game

While you and Coby

HEY, DEAN, you scream

One Down, One to Go

Ouch!

Freedom

Sample Chapter from THE CROSSOVER

Buy the Book

Middle Grade Mania!

About the Author

Footnotes

Copyright © 2016 by Kwame Alexander

Text on
page 284
used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

 

All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
[email protected]
or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

 

www.hmhco.com

 

Cover photo © 2016 by Steve Gardner

Cover design by Lisa Vega

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file.

 

ISBN: 978-0-544-57098-6

 

eISBN 978-0-544-78771-1
v1.0416

For Lynne, Stacey, Mary Ann, John, and Deborah,
some of the coolest librarians and teachers on the planet;
and to the best English teacher I never had:
Joanna Fox, the real dragonfly lady.

Gameplay

on the pitch, lightning fa
S
t,

dribble, fake, then make a dash

 

player tries t
O
steal the ball

lift and step and make him fall

 

zip and zoom to find the spot

defense readies for the shot

 

C
hip, then kick it in the air

take off like a Belgian hare

 

shoot it left, but watch it
C
urve

all he can do is observe

 

watch the ball b
E
nd in midflight

play this game fa
R
into night.

Wake Up Call

After playing FIFA

online with Coby

till one thirty a.m.

last night,

you wake

this morning

to the sound

of Mom arguing

on the phone

with Dad.

Questions

Did you make up your bed?

Yeah. Can you put bananas in my pancakes, please?

 

Did you finish your homework?

Yeah. Can we play a quick game of Ping-Pong, Mom?

 

And what about the reading. I didn't see you doing that yesterday.

Mom, Dad's not even here.

 

Just because your father's away doesn't mean you can avoid your chores.

I barely have time for my
real
chores.

 

Perhaps you should spend less time playing Xbox at all hours of the night.

Huh?

 

Oh, you think I didn't know?

I'm sick of reading his stupid words, Mom. I'm going to high school next year and I shouldn't have to keep doing this.

Why couldn't your dad

be a musician

like Jimmy Leon's dad

or own an oil company

like Coby's?

Better yet, why couldn't

he be a cool detective

driving

a sleek silver

convertible sports car

like Will Smith

in
Bad Boys
?

Instead, your dad's

a linguistics professor

with chronic verbomania
*

as evidenced

by the fact

that he actually wrote

a dictionary

called
Weird and Wonderful Words

with,

get this,

footnotes.

In the elementary school spelling bee

when you intentionally

misspelled
heifer,

he almost had a cow.

 

You're the only kid

on your block

at school

in THE. ENTIRE. FREAKIN'. WORLD.

who lives in a prison

of words.

He calls it
the pursuit of excellence.

You call it
Shawshank.

And even though your mother

forbids you to say it,

the truth is

you

HATE

words.

Giddy-up

she hollers,

SMASHING the ball

to the edge

of the right corner

of the table

with so much force,

it sends you diving

into the laundry stack,

trying and failing

to lob it back.

 

Loser does the dishes tonight.

You can't say that now, Mom. It's game point.

 

She drops a shot

right over the net

that you can't get to.

You're a one-trick pony, young boy.

Stick to soccer,
she jokes, then

headlocks you,

hits you on the backside

with her paddle,

and soaks your forehead

in kisses

after beating you

for the fourth game

in a row.

Mom

used to race horses,

but now she only trains them.

Correction: she
used to

train them,

which was pretty awesome,

especially when you

got to cowboy

around the neighborhood

or watch

the Preakness

from luxury box seats

with unlimited Coke and shrimp.

But she doesn't do it anymore

since there are no horses

in the city.

Last year,

she did get asked

to train

a horse named

Bite My Dust,

but when she revealed

that we'd have to move

to some small town

with no university

(or travel soccer team),

Dad said
No

with a capital
N
.

Blackjack on the Way to School

With two sevens showing, you

say, Hit me! Coby curses

when you get a third. BLACKJACK!

Ms. Hardwick's Honors English class
BOOK: Booked
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