#tbt: Shakespeare Bats Cleanup by Ron Koertge

Shakespeare Bats Cleanup by Ron Koertge. 128 p. Candlewick Press, February, 2003. 9780763621162.

#tbt features Shakespeare Bats Cleanup by Ron Koertge. Eighth grader Kevin Bolland lives and breathes baseball. When he is benched for months thanks to mono, he needs something to do so he writes a poem in his journal. This leads him to look for a book about writing poetry in his dad's study and suddenly Kevin can't write fast enough. He writes about middle school, girls and grief over his mother's recent death. This brief verse novel was published in 2003 and has a sequel called Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs.