Word Nerd by Susin Nielson

I picked this book up on a whim while I was picking up my last Kelley Armstrong book from the library. It sounded funny, and it was.

Word Nerd is about a 12 year old boy named Ambrose with a peanut allergy and an affinity for Scrabble. He is raised by his overprotective mother, who is driven to shelter her son from the world after her husband suddenly died of a brain aneurism before Ambrose was born. This book is basically about a boy's relationship with his mother, cliche as that may be. Everything he does is driven by his need paradoxical need to break away from her control and the need to protect her.

We are first introduced to Ambrose at school, where three bullies place a peanut into his lunch and almost cause him to die. After this incident, Ambrose's mother decides that Ambrose should stay at home and complete school by correspondence. Meanwhile, their landlord's delinquent son, Cosmo, returns from jail and accidentally becomes Ambrose's best friend. Ambrose helps keep Cosmo out of trouble, and Cosmo helps Ambrose gain self confidence and learn to defend himself. All this occurs around a weekly Scrabble club where Ambrose finally finds a place where he belongs and meets people who appreciate him besides his mom.

I don't normally read contemporary fiction, because I keep expecting it to be deep and profound and hard to read (an unfortunate by product of my post secondary education). So I stick to my scifi, fantasy and romance novels because I know they will be entertaining and won't hurt my brain. This book did not hurt, it read simply, almost too simply, like it was actually written by the boy narrating the story. Which makes sense, but left me wanting a bit more depth because everything was so obvious.