Booked and The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

[Zac]

I read both Booked and The Crossover by Kwame Alexander in the holidays and absolutely loved them! They are both verse novels that would be great for sporty Year 7/8 boys in particular. Booked is about a guy who plays soccer and The Crossover is about twin brothers who play basketball. Kwame perfectly captures the thrill of the games and the life of a 12 year old boy. I think they could really turn non-readers into readers.

[NZBook]

I'm also keen to put together a reading challenge around Booked which has a great male librarian character who tries (unsuccessfully) to recruit the boy to book club and lots of books are mentioned, and read in the course of the novel.

[Jane]

I've just bought "Booked" on the strength of Zac's recommendation. I read it last night - it only took an hour.
I loved it!
Great for reluctant readers, football/soccer loving kids, and readers who are into relationship/realistic themes (the main character Nick has a serious crush on a girl in his class, and then has to deal with the trauma of his parents separating).
Some fantastic passages to read aloud, especially ones dealing with the action on the football pitch, and also when Nick is in the classroom struggling to pay attention.
Finally, you have to love a book that has a cool, rapping librarian! I highly recommend it (thanks Zac).

[Helen]

Jane wrote: "I've just bought "Booked" on the strength of Zac's recommendation. I read it last night - it only took an hour.
I loved it!
Great for reluctant readers, football/soccer loving kids, and readers wh..."

Agreed with everyone's comments - a great book and easy to 'sell' to reluctant boy readers. Year 7/8 teacher has successfully read this aloud to his class.