Booked

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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
.

With two sevens showing, you

say, Hit me! Coby curses

when you get a third. BLACKJACK!