Shakespeare Bats Cleanup - Hardcover

Koertge, Ron

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0763621161 ISBN 13: 9780763621162

Publisher: Candlewick, 2003

Synopsis

A straight-talking, fourteen-year-old first baseman, benched by mono, decides to take a swing at writing poetry in Ron Koertge’s 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.

I’m up. Two on, one out. I’m the cleanup
man. My job is to bring these guys home.

MVP Kevin Boland gets the news that he has mono and won’t 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 dad’s den. 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, 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 teacher’s dream - sure to hook poetry lovers, baseball fanatics, mono recoverers, and everyone in between.

About this title

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!"

Reviews

Grade 6-9-Like his earlier The Brimstone Journals (Candlewick, 2001), Koertge writes this novel in highly accessible free verse. Fourteen-year-old Kevin Boland is an MVP first baseman whose whole life revolves around baseball. Diagnosed with mono, he is forced to stay at home for months while he recuperates. Bored, Kevin borrows his father's book of poetry and starts writing his own. At first, he just has fun imitating haiku and sonnets, but he soon begins writing insightful verse, both funny and serious, in which he records his candid observations about life in junior high, romance, his dreams of baseball stardom, and his grief over the recent death of his mother. 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. The cover will lead readers to believe that this is about baseball, but they will quickly realize there is much, much more to this finely crafted story.
Edward Sullivan, White Pine School, TN
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 7-10. Koertge has written a standout among the growing number of young adult novels told through verse. Faced with months at home because of a bout of mono, 14-year-old Kevin Boland begins to write poems, using a book from his father's collection to guide him. He writes about such things as the recent death of his mother, his love of baseball, and his make-out sessions with girls. When he recovers, he continues his writing habit and finds a new girlfriend, experimenting with different forms of poetry along the way, including free verse, haiku, sonnets, ballads, and even a sestina. Koertge does an excellent job of creating the authentic voice of a teenage boy exclusively through poems. The poems are funny, touching, and always energetic, and they show both Kevin's growing love for poetry and his struggles as a writer. Several of his attempts at difficult forms break apart in the middle, and some poems have rough edges, giving an extra dose of realism to the somewhat artificial concept of the book. Readers will find themselves identifying with Kevin and perhaps come to understand his attraction to poetry. Todd Morning
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Their pitcher walks our leadoff man. Greg
moves him up to second with a perfect
sacrifice. Fabian loops one into right.

I'm up. Two on, one out. I'm the cleanup
man. My job is to bring these guys home.

I take a pitch. Foul one off. Take a strike.
Their left fielder drifts in.

Bam! I lift one right over his head. A double!
Two runs score. I slide into second. Safe!


That's what I'm thinking, anyway, propped
up in bed with some dumb book.

Than Dad comes in and says, "The doctor
called. Your tests came back. You've got
mono."

"So I can't play ball."

He pats my knee. "You can't even go to
school, Kevin. You need to take it real easy."

He hands me a journal, one of those marbly
black-and-white ones he likes.

"You're gonna have a lot of time on your
hands. Maybe you'll feel like writing
something down."


IN BED

Being sick is like taking a trip, isn't it?
Going to another country, sort of.
A country nobody wants to visit.
A country named Fevertown.
Or Virusburg. Or Germ Corners.

The border guards are glum-looking,
with runny noses and pasty skin. Their
uniforms don't fit and flap open in the
back so you can see their big, ugly butts.

Nobody wants to go there, but everybody
does, sooner or later.

And some stay.


PRESSURE

Dad's never talked to me about writing
before. He's not nuts to have me be just
like him.

Len Boggs has a dad like that. It's been
Boggs & Son ever since Lennie was about
two seconds old.

They're plumbers. "Got clogs? Call Boggs!"
Don't laugh. Their vans are all over the
place. They're rich.

And Len hates it.

Lennie's fourteen, like me. He doesn't
know what he wants to do when he grows
up. Maybe go in the Marines. Maybe play
the cello.

But he for sure doesn't want to be
a plumber.

His dad is already on his case, riding him
about it.

I think mine's just trying to be nice.


HOME ALONE

Well, not exactly. Dad's here, that's why
we don't have to get somebody to come
in and take care of me.

First of all, I don't need much care. I sleep
all the time, or at least it feels that way.

Dad works at home. He and I pass
each other in the hall—
I in my sweats, he in his cap.

When I was little and I got sick, Mom used
to read to me.

Thinking about that's not going to help.


INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW

Why am I writing down the middle
of the page?

It kind of looks like poetry, but no way
is it poetry. It's just stuff.

So I tiptoe into the den and cop this book
of Dad's.

It feels weird smuggling something about
poetry up to my room like it's the new
PENTHOUSE.

But I don't want Dad to know what I'm
doing yet. Even though I'm not doing
anything. Not really.

I'm just going to fool around a little,
see what's what poetry-wise.


HOW DO YOU DO, HAIKU

I thought I'd start small. I kind of
remember haiku from school last year.
I at least remember they're little.

But, man—I never saw so many frogs
in the moonlight. And leaves. Leaves
all over the place.

Weren't there any gardeners in ancient
Japan? Weren't there any cats and dogs?

Still, haiku look easy. Sort of. Five
syllables in the first line, seven
in the second, five in the third.

Frogs, frogs, frogs, frogs, frogs.
Frogs, frogs, frogs, frogs, frogs, frogs, frogs.
Frogs, frogs, frogs, frogs, leaves.

Very funny, Kevin.

At least I finished it. I can't finish anything
else, except my nap. Seventeen syllables
is just about right for somebody with my
reduced stamina. Perfect thing for an
invalid.

Oh, man—look at that: IN VALID. I never
saw that before.

Just a single space
in a word I thought I knew
made the difference.

Edition details

• Publisher: Candlewick
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0763621161
• ISBN 13: 9780763621162
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 116