Nick lives and breathes football/soccer. His best friend Coby is even more soccer mad. Nick’s Dad is a linguistics professor and his mum an ex renowned horse trainer.

Nick and his mum are close but Nick resents his dad’s insistence on reading a dictionary he has written, made up of strange or complicate words. Dad believes an extended vocab will help him through school, uni and beyond. When Mum says she’s going back to horse training but has to move to Kentucky for a while, Nick is devastated. How can they do this to him?

But with the help of his ex-rapper school librarian, his mates and the girl he likes at school, Nick comes to terms with the changes in his life – and despite his resistance, words and books have been a part of that journey.

Now available in this graphic novel format, Booked will certainly hit the spot for an increasing number of soccer-mad tweens.

The funky illustration style and design of the book is entertaining, and the themes relevant to any tween. School, a girl crush, a fracturing family, bullying, and the help to deal with all these challenges is engaging and the conclusion authentic.

The word play, beginning with the title, was fabulous in this book. Its humour, sports theme, and colourful and believable characters bring this graphic verse novel to life.

The verses themselves were structured in all different ways which not only told the story but gave me lots of Wow moments at their cleverness.

With Nick only 12, this book can be read from 10+. I think teens will enjoy this too.

Author – Kwame Alexander

Age – 10+

(2022, Graphic novel, Harper Collins, Sport, Soccer, Football, Divorce, Growing up, Words, Books, Verse, Rapper, Librarian, Fracturing family, Bullying, Crush, Prejudice, Humour)