Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen

Book of the Week: 4 December 2016

 

Reading a Susin Nielsen book is like eating a quality box of chocolates – you feel you should tackle some broccoli but the chocolate is just so addictive. That is not to say that big topics are avoided in her books,but that they are delivered with humour and such a light touch that you can’t put them down until they are finished.

Word Nerd features one of her typically likeable but dorky central characters. Ambrose has little dress sense, often says the wrong thing at the wrong time, loves Scrabble and is called ‘Spambrose’ and ‘Jambrose’ by the boys at school who pick on him. His single mum is a struggling university lecturer on a temporary contract who has been anxious about Ambrose’s every move since his father’s death before he was born. She decides to home-school Ambrose so he can escape the misery of school, inadvertently sending him into a downward spiral of loneliness and boredom until Cosmo, the grown-up, ex-convict son of the neighbours, moves in next door. Together they join a Scrabble club where Ambrose feels he can demonstrate his word skills; and Cosmo his talent at impressing Amanda, the attractive Club Director.

The problem is that his mother is very much opposed to Ambrose having anything to do with an ex-convict or to going more than two blocks from home. Ambrose feels he has to keep the whole thing a secret; and that’s bound to end badly.

If you enjoyed Susin Nielsen’s other books: We Are All Made of Molecules and The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen, then you will find this is just as good. If you are a Scrabble fan, like Ambrose, you may also like Seven-Letter Word by Kim Slater.