Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
"This funny and poignant novel celebrates the power of writing to help young people make sense of their lives and unlock and confront their problems." - SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review)When MVP Kevin Boland gets the news that he has mono and won't be seeing a baseball field for a while, he suddenly finds himself scrawling a poem down the middle of a page in his journal. To get some help, he cops a poetry book from his dad's den - and before Kevin knows it, he's writing in verse about stuff like, Will his jock friends give up on him? What's the deal with girlfriends? Surprisingly enough, after his health improves, he keeps on writing, about the smart-talking Latina girl who thinks poets are cool, and even about his mother, whose death is a still-tender loss. Written in free verse with examples of several poetic forms slipped into the mix, including a sonnet, haiku, pastoral, and even a pantoum, this funny, poignant story by a master of dialogue is an English teacher's dream - sure to hook poetry lovers, baseball fanatics, mono recoverers, and everyone in between.
When a fourteen-year-old baseball player catches mononucleosis, he discovers that keeping a journal and experimenting with poetry not only helps fill the time, it also helps him deal with life, love, and loss.
Synopsis
"This funny and poignant novel celebrates the power of writing to help young people make sense of their lives and unlock and confront their problems." - SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review)
When MVP Kevin Boland gets the news that he has mono and won't be seeing a baseball field for a while, he suddenly finds himself scrawling a poem down the middle of a page in his journal. To get some help, he cops a poetry book from his dad's den - and before Kevin knows it, he's writing in verse about stuff like, Will his jock friends give up on him? What's the deal with girlfriends? Surprisingly enough, after his health improves, he keeps on writing, about the smart-talking Latina girl who thinks poets are cool, and even about his mother, whose death is a still-tender loss. Written in free verse with examples of several poetic forms slipped into the mix, including a sonnet, haiku, pastoral, and even a pantoum, this funny, poignant story by a master of dialogue is an English teacher's dream - sure to hook poetry lovers, baseball fanatics, mono recoverers, and everyone in between.
Publishers Weekly
"A 14-year-old baseball star temporarily sidelined by a case of mono narrates this affecting novel told in verse, which scores points for both style and substance," PW said. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
"A 14-year-old baseball star temporarily sidelined by a case of mono narrates this affecting novel told in verse, which scores points for both style and substance," PW said. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.Children's Literature
While recuperating from mono (infectious mononucleosis), Kevin Boland keeps a journal in which he writes free verse. Although he describes what he first writes as just stuff down the center of the page, later he tries haiku, sonnets, and other poetic forms. His journal provides a catharsis as he adjusts to his mother's death, his illness, not being able to play baseball, and awareness of finely-tuned teen hormones. He continues to write as he recovers and concludes poetry is "very cool," in fact, "Almost as cool as baseball." With help from lines like those in which Kevin compares poetry to chocolate milk, this book would be a great read-aloud for an English teacher seeking a devious way to introduce poetry. Skim milk is nourishing, he writes, "but chocolate milk is just better." Short and punchy, the book's size alone (116 pages with much white space) guarantees popularity as motivating fodder for book reports. 2003, Candlewick Press,— Mary Bowman-Kruhm
KLIATT
In the back cover information on the author, Koertge says that he loves baseball and poetry—and that he was at a game once, writing a poem, when he saw a boy whose father was lecturing him on the finer points of baseball while the boy was scribbling on a piece of paper—this gave him the idea for Shakespeare Bats Cleanup. Amazingly, this book is a poetry novel about a 14-year-old boy who loves baseball. It is actually a series of poems, each with a title, but the poems link together to tell a longer narrative. For our purposes, we will say this is YA fiction and review it here. Kevin is the narrator, the baseball player, the writer of poems. The latter surprises even him, but what happens is that he can't play baseball because he has mono and he starts reading a book on poetry his father has lying around. A combination of delight in words and poetry forms has him experimenting with haiku, sonnets, free verse, the ballad, and other styles first as entertainment and then slowly to express his innermost feelings. And he has a lot of these feelings because his mother died recently and he is still grieving for her. He and his father are close, but can't really talk about what they are feeling, so poetry becomes an essential outlet of expression. The story isn't all seriousness, however, because Kevin frequently turns to humor and fun as relief and because he essentially is a typical 14-year-old who wants to have a girlfriend, and who wants to be a star baseball player. So we have such poetry here as: "But Baseball and Sex?" "Guys are always asking, "Did you get/ to first base with her?"/ So boys are the players and girls are,/what, the diamond?".... Teachers facing middle-school boys whowouldn't be caught dead reading poetry might find Koertge a life-saving ally in convincing boys that poetry can be full of life (lives like theirs) and accessible. KLIATT Codes: J—Recommended for junior high school students. 2003, Candlewick, 116p.,— Claire Rosser