Word Nerd

by Susin Nielsen

Twelve-year-old Ambrose is a glass-half-full kind of guy. A self-described “friendless nerd,” he moves from place to place every couple of years with his overprotective mother, Irene. When some bullies at his new school almost kill him by slipping a peanut into his sandwich — even though they know he has a deathly allergy — Ambrose is philosophical. Irene, however, is not and decides that Ambrose will be home-schooled.

Alone in the evenings when Irene goes to work, Ambrose pesters Cosmo, the twenty-five-year-old son of the Greek landlords who live upstairs. Cosmo has just been released from jail for breaking and entering to support a drug habit. Quite by accident, Ambrose discovers that they share a love of Scrabble and coerces Cosmo into taking him to the West Side Scrabble Club, where Cosmo falls for Amanda, the club director. Posing as Ambrose’s Big Brother to impress her, Cosmo is motivated to take Ambrose to the weekly meetings and to give him lessons in self-defense. Cosmo, Amanda, and Ambrose soon form an unlikely alliance and, for the first time in his life, Ambrose blossoms. The characters at the Scrabble Club come to embrace Ambrose for who he is and for their shared love of words. There’s only one problem: Irene has no idea what Ambrose is up to.

In this brilliantly observed novel, author Susin Nielsen transports the reader to the world of competitive Scrabble as seen from the honest yet funny viewpoint of a boy who’s searching for acceptance and for a place to call home.

• ISBN10: 088776875X
• ISBN13: 9780887768750
• Publish Date: 9 September 2008
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 4 June 2021
• Publish Country: CA
• Imprint: Tundra Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 256
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780887768750

Reviews

[Leah]

Word Nerd is one of the most adorable books I’ve read this year – I don’t know what it is, but Susin Nielsen really knows how to tap into her characters heads, she really makes them come to life, she really makes you care about them and Ambrose Bukowski is no different. His love of Scrabble is amazing and I loved how each chapter title was a mixed-up bunch of letters that spelt out the chapter title. That was a pretty sweet addition, very well thought out. It’s about finding your place in the world, and after moving multiple times over the years, Ambrose finally feels at home in Vancouver, helped by his friend Cosmo.

I very rarely see such a well written kid-adult friendship, without it being weird. But Ambrose and Cosmo’s friendship is amazing. I liked how Cosmo was reluctant at first, but Ambrose weaselled his way in and they were quite a Scrabble playing partnership. They really brought out the best in each other, I felt, because Ambrose could see past Cosmo’s previous issues – his jail sentence, the drugs, etc, and instead just saw Cosmo, a guy trying to put his life back on track and Cosmo didn’t see Ambrose as a weird nerd, who couldn’t keep his mouth shut, he just saw a kid desperate to get out more, to make friends, to play Scrabble, the simple things in life, y’know?

I thoroughly enjoyed Word Nerd. Susin Nielsen has been a revelation to me this year – I adored We Are All Made of Molecules, and I’ve loved Word Nerd just as much, and I look forward to getting stuck into her previous two other books. She’s an outstanding writer and I absolutely adored Ambrose, from his Scrabble addition, to his friendship with Cosmo (proper bromance stuff!), to the Canadian setting (OH CANADA!!!!), to his inability to know when to shut up, everything about this book was sweet and adorable and I loved it.