Nerd Camp

Description: For 10-year-old Gabe, the Summer Center for Gifted Enrichment is all that he dreamed it would be, but he must work hard to write about the fun in letters to Zach, his cool future stepbrother, without revealing that it is a camp for "nerds."

Brief description: Elissa Brent Weissman is the author of The Short Seller, Nerd Camp, Nerd Camp 2.0, Standing for Socks, The Trouble with Mark Hopper, and the editor of Our Story Begins. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Visit her at EBWeissman.com.

Review Quotes: Nerd Camp.
Weissman, Elissa Brent (Author)
May 2011. 272 p. Atheneum, hardcover, $15.99. (9781442417038).

Perfect for kids whose quest for knowledge isn't satisfied by nine months of school, Weissman's latest
novel features an appealing 10-year-old who's more certain of facts and figures than of his worth. Gabe
questions his own "coolness" when he meets the boy who's about to become his stepbrother; they're the
same age but worlds apart intellectually, and Gabe tries to hide from Zack all traces of his own nerdy
tendencies. Weissman portrays Gabe as a sweet only child who's as excited about getting the sibling he
has always wanted as he is about being admitted to a "Gifted Enrichment" camp. Over the course of six
weeks of camp, he revels in his adventures and then analyzes them for their nerdiness quotient, working
out logic proofs to help him figure out how much to tell Zack. Weissman depicts a camp whose academic
classes sound almost as fun as kayaking and color war. These smart, funny kids learn something from a
lice infestation, and it's only logical that Gabe also gains confidence in his own opinions and individuality.

--BOOKLIST, May 1, 2011