This poem comes from Kwame Alexander’s just-published-this-month novel in verse called BOOKED. It’s a companion novel to THE CROSSOVER, winner of …basically all the book awards last year for middle grade books. Okay not all of them, but a whole basket. Anyway, you see why it won all the things just from this simple poem — deceptively simple. Some of the novel is blank verse, but there’s meter and rhyme and a crisp, driving movement to his work. While BOOKED doesn’t have the rap beat/dance tunes of THE CROSSOVER — football (soccer) seems to lend itself to an entirely different rhythm than basketball — Alexander takes different kinds of poetry for a spin – and he uses acrostic, twice!
BOOKED is about a rising star, Nick Hall, eighth grade superhero. He’s killin’ it in soccer – and he’s going to make it to his school’s version of the World Cup. He’s juuuust about to make time with a very sweet girl. And then — boom — it all goes up in smoke. Like THE CROSSOVER, this is another sports-centric middle-grade novel about life, loss and coping, as Nick learns about picking yourself up and going on. It’s told with a lot of heart and a lot of talent.
Gameplay
by Kwame Alexander, from the book, BOOKED, 2016
on the pitch lightning faSt
dribble, fake, then make a dash
player tries tO steal the ball
lift and step and make him fall
zip and zoom to find the spot
defense readies for the shot
Chip, then kick it in the air;
take off like a Belgian hare
shoot it left, but watch it Curve
all he can do is observe
watch the ball bEnd in midflight
play this game faR into night.
Atypical acrostic, yes, but I think — by my completely fly-by-night knowledge of its “rules” — I think this counts as well, and I like it. I’d challenge my students to write acrostic poetry in this way.