58 pages • 1 hour read
Kwame AlexanderBooked
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Middle Grade | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Verbomania as a Sport
Throughout Booked, Alexander encourages readers to recognize the value of words and the books that contain them. Nick’s character arc begins with his resentment over words and frustration with his father. Nick claims that his dad suffers from verbomania, or “a crazed obsession for words” (4). His English teacher and the school librarian also badger Nick about reading books for class and for extra-curricular fun.
Nick may claim to “HATE / words” (5) and love only soccer, but he secretly shares his father’s obsession. Nick flexes his large vocabulary in daily life and takes pleasure in words like limerence and sweven. He also uses words like pugilism, rapprochement, and twain, which Nick defines via footnotes that mirror the footnotes in his dad’s dictionary. However, Nick tells Dr. Fraud, “I don’t like being forced to sound smart” (273). Nick, then, may not hate words at all, but he recoils at his father’s strict demands.
It’s only as Nick’s relationship with April develops that he comes to value his intelligence and his vocabulary. His crush compliments his use of the word prestigious and invites him to read the books she likes. Although Nick starts reading to earn TV time in the hospital and maintain a connection with April, he becomes interested in reading for its own sake. He is fascinated with the characters, settings, and problems in these stories. He even calls the novel Out of the Dust “unputdownable” (237). The Mac also shows him the musicality of books like All the Broken Pieces, which the librarian reads aloud as if rapping. Alexander shows readers the many facets of words and books to tell Nick’s story and to illustrate the joy of reading for pleasure.
As Nick’s relationship with his father evolves from contentious to close, his dad stops being so hard on him, and Nick comes to value the words his father taught him. In the big showdown that concludes Booked, Nick repeats his dad’s taunting words to a bully: “I’m sick of your yobbery” (307). Dr. Fraud and The Mac also encourage Nick to keep up his talent with words, as it’s part of what makes him special. This is something his dad knew all along, but it took Nick a few challenges along the way to learn it for himself.
Standing Up for Yourself and Your Friends
On the soccer field, Nick is swift and courageous. He can meet any challenge, ready to improve and to win. Nick is not so fearless, however, when he encounters the Eggleston twins. These bullies beat Nick up, steal his bicycle, and use racist insults against his best friend. Unlike Coby, Nick is too afraid to fight back against the Egglestons, because his former experience fighting in fourth grade “didn’t go well” (111). Nevertheless, Nick is ashamed that he abandoned his friend during a fight in the cafeteria, and his passivity weighs on him throughout the story. As Dr. Fraud tells Nick, “Camouflaging your fears doesn’t make them go away, Nicholas” (158). Nick makes a habit of avoiding things that scare him, but over time he realizes the flaws in this plan.
Although Coby tells Nick, “Just have my back next time” (121), Nick doesn’t follow through when his co-captain Pernell harasses Coby during a soccer game in a later scene. Nick channels his frustration as he criticizes the main character of All the Broken Pieces with Mr. MacDonald. Nick claims he would fight back if he were that character, but he doesn’t appear confident in his own claim. Nick assumes that he must learn to fight, but his dad teaches his son that bullies are just as afraid as he is. As Nick’s granddad said to Nick’s dad at a young age, “The only fight you really have to win is the one against the fear” (296). Rather than avoiding and camouflaging fear, as Dr. Fraud said, Nick must learn to meet it head-on and overcome it with a different kind of fight.
This truth also applies to Nick’s crush on April. He feels insecure during each interaction with her, swallowing his gum and hanging up six times before he calls her on the phone. As with his bullying experience, Nick must confront his fears around April to turn his crush into a relationship.
The transition out of childhood requires bravery in fearful situations. Nick comes of age as a teenager the more he exercises that bravery. At the climactic pool party, Nick no longer has to imagine that he can defeat the Egglestons with agile moves and big words. He marches out alone to confront them, armed with malapropisms, tae kwon do, dance moves from etiquette class, and his dad’s wisdom. He has learned to be brave, bold, and resilient. As he tells Coby after his fight with the Egglestons, “I know how to take a punch” (313).
Reimagining Family
Nick’s parents change his life forever when they announce their separation. Over time, Nick comes to appreciate his mom and dad in new ways and reshape his expectation of family.
Nick shares his mom’s competitive spirit, playing soccer and Ping-Pong with her. He loves her cooking and her sense of humor, and the two enjoy a close, affectionate relationship. Nick is heartbroken when she moves away and separates from his dad. He avoids her texts and phone calls, punishing her for abandoning him with his strict father and longing for her to come back. When Coby asks Nick about their reason for separating, Nick says his parents told him “Something about how they still love each other but they don’t like each other” (62). This shows that although Nick’s parents explained the breakup, Nick is not satisfied with the explanation or the breakup’s effects on his life.
With father and son left alone in the house, tensions rise to the surface. Nick feels oppressed by his dad’s high expectations and how he makes him memorize words from the dictionary. He doesn’t share his troubles with his dad as easily as his mom, so Nick’s anger and pain fester in silence. The psychologist Dr. Fraud, however, gives Nick space to share these feelings. Nick also reaches out to his friend Coby, asking him what it’s like to have an absent parent. Coby talks about his dad: “We talk all the time, and I see him every summer. / [...] I know it’s kinda hard right now, but you’ll get used to it” (210). Coby adjusted to his family situation over time and knows that Nick will too. Nick, however, still wishes for a return to normalcy in his family.
As Nick watches his mother and father repair their relationship after his surgery, Nick assumes his parents are back together. The poem “Dreams Come True” concludes with the lines, “Finally, normal seems possible / again” (244). However, these dreams erupt when his parents plan to divorce. Through family therapy, however, Nick comes to accept his mother’s pursuit of her career and his parents’ changing relationship. Nick also finds commonality between himself and his dad during “Conversation with Dad,” which will likely lead to greater understanding and bonding between them.
As Dr. Fraud encourages Nick about the challenges of change, he says that “eventually things do get back to normal” (274). This doesn’t mean that his parents will get back together but that Nick will find a new normal in the midst of their separation. As with standing up for himself, adjusting to change is another mark of coming of age. Nick matures as he learns to cope with the pain and keep lines of communication open with his mom and dad near the end of Booked.
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