MacDonald the rapper turned school librarian who guides Nick and friends through the angst that comprises most of middle school culture. Additionally, there are more role models outside of the family which were absent in Crossover.

Alexander has him speak in a whirlwind combination of poetry, rap, and text messages in order to relay how life is for a 21st century teenager. Unlike Crossover, where basketball took the largest portion of the book, in Booked soccer is only one of many facets of Nick's busy life. The exchanges between the teens and the parents come in the form of rap and asides rather than traditional dialogue, making the prose fun for students.

Alexander relays these complex issues in the form of onomatopoeic poetry that allows adolescents to grasp them on their level. Nick allows his home life to get in the way of his performance in the classroom and the soccer field. Meanwhile, his parents have both devoted too much time to their chosen professions and decided to get a divorce. Alongside his best friend Coby, he has to navigate eighth grade issues from bullying to asking out a cute girl to the spring formal dance. Nicholas Hall is a thirteen year old phenom on the soccer field and in the classroom. Through his poetry in motion Alexander brings us a quality middle grade kids book that will leave students stupefied and asking their teachers for more books. In Booked, Alexander presents the reader with Nick Hall, a gifted student and soccer player who is coping with his parents' recent divorce. Kwame Alexander, on the heels of his award winning Crossover, has wowed his readers again with Booked, an equally poetic tale about sports as the backdrop for teenaged angst. Recently, Alexander led a delegation of 20 writers and activists to Ghana, where they delivered books, built a library, and provided literacy professional development to 300 teachers, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an International literacy program he co-founded. A regular speaker at colleges and conferences in the U.S., he also travels the world planting seeds of literary love (Singapore, Brazil, Italy, France, Shanghai, etc.). Kwame believes that poetry can change the world, and he uses it to inspire and empower young people through his PAGE TO STAGE Writing and Publishing Program released by Scholastic. His other works include Surf's Up, a picture book Booked, a middle grade novel and He Said She Said, a YA novel. Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and New York Times Bestselling author of 21 books, including The Crossover, which received the 2015 John Newbery Medal for the Most Distinguished Contribution to American literature for Children, the Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor, The NCTE Charlotte Huck Honor, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and the Passaic Poetry Prize.

Booked by kwame alexander