Synopses & Reviews
A straight-talking, fourteen-year-old first baseman, benched by mono, decides to take a swing at writing poetry in Ron Koertges clever, compelling new novel written in free verse.Their pitcher walks our leadoff man.
Greg moves him up to second with a perfect
sacrifice. Fabian loops one into right.
Im up. Two on, one out. Im the cleanup
man. My job is to bring these guys home.
MVP Kevin Boland gets the news that he has mono and wont be seeing a baseball field for a while, and 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 dads den. Before Kevin knows it, hes writing in verse about stuff like, Will his jock friends give up on him? Whats 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, even about his mother, whose death is a still-tender loss for which he finally finds the words.
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 teachers dream - sure to hook poetry lovers, baseball fanatics, mono recoverers, and everyone in between.
Synopsis
From the author of "Stoner & Spaz" comes the story of a straight-talking 14-year old first baseman who's benched by mono and decides to take a swing at writing poetry. This compelling new novel is written in free verse.
About the Author
Ron Koertge, the author of several acclaimed novels for young adults -
including STONER & SPAZ and THE BRIMSTONE JOURNALS - has been a faculty member for more than thirty-five years at Pasadena City College, where he has taught everything from Shakespeare to remedial writing. He also writes poetry for adults. Of SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP, he says, "I find it funny that kids will willingly follow the rules in any game, but if you give them rules for writing poetry, they rebel!"