'Booked'
Kwame Alexander
Kwame Alexander
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…
In this follow-up to the Newbery-winning novel THE CROSSOVER, soccer, family, love, and friendship, take center stage as twelve-year-old Nick learns the power of words as he wrestles with problems at home, stands up to a bully, and tries to impress the girl of his dreams. Helping him along are his best friend and sometimes teammate Coby, and The Mac, a rapping librarian who gives Nick inspiring books to read.
This electric and heartfelt novel-in-verse by poet Kwame Alexander bends and breaks as it captures all the thrills and setbacks, action and emotion of a World Cup match!
Wing has always felt overshadowed by her adored older brother, Marcus: he’s popular, he’s on the football team, and no-one ever makes fun of him for his Chinese-black mixed race heritage. Wing, on the other hand, feels like she doesn’t fit in anywhere. But, when Marcus does something unforgivable, Wing’s life starts to change beyond all recognition.
A heart-warming, positive tale about family, identity and coming of age, Wing Jones does an excellent job of presenting a mixed-race heroine in a supportive and loving family, but one with its own complex stresses and differences.
The experience of being the sibling of a very successful brother is finely drawn, as is Wing’s blossoming first romance, which runs alongside her own development as an athlete, with sensitivity to the interplay of Wing being true to herself and coping with overwhelming new feelings.
Wing’s two matriarch grandmothers are especially wonderful and provide an extra, magical element to a well-rounded story about love, family and ambition.
When Jamie Johnson starts at a new school he’s desperate to become the school’s star football player. But can Jamie cope with the pressure, at the same time as dealing with school, friends and his mum?
Packed full of footballing tips, fumbled free kicks and nail-biting penalties, every reader will be on Jamie's side.
A British boy narrowly survives the sinking of his yacht in a huge storm off the coast of Morocco. After days alone at sea in a tiny rowing boat Bill rescues a girl clinging for her life to a barrel. Aya, from the nomadic Berber tribe, was escaping to Europe when her migrant ship was destroyed in the same storm. Through endless days and star-spangled nights, they drift - mere specks on the vast, empty ocean - weakened by fear, hunger, and burned by the unforgiving sun.
Aya tells Bill about The Arabian Nights, and Shahrazad, who told 1001 stories to save her life. As hope of rescue begins to fade, they find strength in these tales of magic, brave heroes, wily thieves, greedy sultans, and courageous girls. When they land on a desert island, they're surprised to be confronted by a stranger who is not what he seems... and back out on the waves once more in the dark deep, a shadow follows...