By Kwame Alexander
Middle school is a tremendous time of growth and maturity. A time of new interests, old friends new friends and romance. Nick has a highly developed lexicon due to a father that is a professor of linguistics. In fact, his father has even written a dictionary of interesting words. Nick loves to play soccer, hang out with his best friend Coby, he is shy around the girl of his dreams, has a great relationship with his mother and friction with his father. He has a marvelous mentor in the school's librarian, former rapper Mac. Nick seems to be muddling through his 8th grade year pretty well until strife between his parents makes his home life strained and until the class bullies come back to school. One of the twins likes Nick's dream girl, which leads to even more turmoil.
When Nick's parents openly disagree and dad ends up sleeping on the couch, his life really starts shifting to a new normal. Nick's mother decides to have a trial separation and moves out of state to further her career has a horse trainer. This leaves Nick with an exacting father with extremely high expectations. Nick's father forces him to read his dictionary daily and Nick hates to read even though his romantic interest is in the school's book club. Nick's love of soccer and his best friend Coby are really his saving grace and they are looking forward to a large tournament with college scouts, but in a rival soccer match, when Coby is on the opposing team. Nick is injured and he suffers a burst appendix. The tournament is out and Nick is devastated. When Nick is injured his mom returns home and thinks seems to return to normal, until she packs to return to Kentucky. Nick learns that the written word is his life-save; a new activity, book club, communicating with his mother and using his words to avoid confrontation. Nick does return to health and his life has changed.
I absolutely love this book and give it 5 out of 5 stars. It was amusing fast paced and highly entertaining. I think that it is very appropriate for any student 5th grade and higher. I could not put this book down and will be one of those books that I will keep for a long time. I especially liked the thought that was put into the the font size, the footnotes and the care for the total package. I never knew that poetry could be this incredible! This book is awesome!
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