ALA Booklist (Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 CST 2010)

Kevin Boland has been too busy with baseball and his girlfriend, Mira, to write much poetry since we first met him, in Shakespeare Bats Cleanup (2003). In this verse-novel sequel, his dad gives him a new journal, and Kevin remembers how much he likes writing. His already waning interest in Mira decreases further after he attends an open-mike poetry reading and meets Amy, who has a boyfriend and just wants to be "poetry friends." The two teens exchange e-mails and poems, experimenting with form, including couplets, pantoums, and tankas. Kevin observes, "If she can write a sestina, I'm gonna love her madly." The well-crafted poetry is firmly rooted in the experiences of regular teens and addresses subjects that range from breakups to baseball. Koertge works in some unobtrusive poetry instruction, and poems like Amy's funny Transylvanian limericks and Kevin's poignant reflections on "moving on" will inspire teens to try writing their own. Appealing and accessible, this sequel provides rewards on many levels.

Kirkus Reviews

For Kevin, baseball is a refuge in which he can lose himself to the intricacies and flow of the game. While on the field, he can briefly put aside his grief over his mother's death and his conflicted feelings about his father's decision to see other women. And then there's his own confusion about his cute girlfriend Mira and his new relationship with Amy, who shares his love of poetry. All of these emotions are laid bare in the poems he writes in the journal he began while recovering from mononucleosis ( Shakespeare Bats Cleanup , 2006). He and Amy also text each other in poetry, expressing their feelings and longings with honesty and humor while experimenting with sestina, haiku, sonnets, limericks and more. Kevin and his friends are multilayered characters who are quirky and eccentric but also totally believable. There are no neat endings or miracles. Koertge masterfully leads readers to accept that people—yes, even teenagers—can be individuals, and that baseball and poetry are not necessarily at opposite ends of the spectrum. Well done. (Fiction/poetry. 12 & up)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Dedicated to “the readers of <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Shakespeare Bats Cleanup who wanted to know what happened next,” this follow-up finds Kevin Boland recovered from the mono that sidelined him in the previous book, ready to resume play at first base and continue his relationship with pretty, earnest Mira, now his girlfriend. Complications ensue when Mira fails to show an interest in baseball or poetry and, at an open mike night, Kevin meets Amy, a bookstore owner's daughter who needs help with her haiku. The strength of both books is the seamless way Koertge shows how Kevin processes guilt, excitement, and uncertainty: with his pen. For Kevin, whose mother has died recently, writing is thinking. “Sadness is a big dark bus/ with a schedule of its own,” he writes in a poignant poem about the grief he shares with his father, a well-drawn, easy-to-like character. Kevin's ready acknowledgment of his feelings and facility with words are what make him appealing to Amy—and to readers. Their poetic pas de deux, a budding romance built by swapping villanelles, pantoums, and sestinas, is both funny and charming. Ages 12–up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Mar.)

School Library Journal (Mon Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2010)

Gr 7-9 Kevin's major interests are baseball and his girlfriend, Mira, in that order. In this warm and funny sequel to Shakespeare Bats Cleanup (Candlewick, 2003), the 14-year-old journals in various poetic forms under the supportive tutelage of his widowed father, who is also a poet. Conflicts include Kevin's increasing distance from Mira and her environmental activism, as well as Dad's relationship with a woman named Anna. A poetry reading introduces Kevin to Amy, but her all-too-perfect boyfriend seems to have a lock on her heart. All's well that ends well, the Bard wrote, and whether readers are meeting Kevin for the first time or have already read the first book, they are likely to enjoy both the accessible story and Kevin's struggles with some demanding poetic structures. And it's very likely they'll be tempted to stretch their own writing in response. Joel Shoemaker, South East Junior High School, Iowa City, IA