Into the Wild Nerd Yonder
By Julie Halpern
(Feiwel & Friends, Hardcover, 9780312382520, 256pp.)
Publication Date: September 29, 2009
Categories: Social Issues - Friendship, Social Issues - Adolescence
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Selected by Indie Booksellers for the Winter 2009 Kids' ListIt’s Jessie’s sophomore year of high school. A self-professed “mathelete,” she isn’t sure where she belongs. Her two best friends have transformed themselves into punks and one of them is going after her longtime crush. Her beloved older brother will soon leave for college (and in the meantime has shaved his mohawk and started dating . . . the prom princess!) . . .
Things are changing fast. Jessie needs new friends. And her quest is a hilarious tour through high-school clique-dom, with a surprising stop along the way—the Dungeons and Dragons crowd, who out-nerd everyone. Will hanging out with them make her a nerd, too? And could she really be crushing on a guy with too-short pants and too-white gym shoes?
If you go into the wild nerd yonder, can you ever come back?
Julie Halpern is the author of Get Well Soon, also published by Feiwel and Friends, and the picture book, Toby and the Snowflakes, illustrated by her husband, Matthew Cordell. She lives with Matthew, their daughter, and their large Siamese cat in suburban Chicago. By day Julie works as a middle-school librarian. You can visit her on the Web at www.juliehalpern.com.
Praise for Into the Wild Nerd Yonder:
“The relationships and dialogue ring true; readers navigating the stratified social structures of high school will relish an ending that celebrates true friendship.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“Readers will both identify with and like Jessie and will cheer her conversion from meek to outspoken.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Reinvention is rarely so delightfully nerdy.”—Booklist
“This novel is particularly strong in showing how teen friendships evolve and sometimes die away, and how adolescents redefine themselves.”—School Library Journal
“Witty”—Horn Book Review
Praise for Julie Halpern and Get Well Soon:
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book for Teens 2007
Winner, Ken Award (National Alliance on Mental Illness)
“. . . funny, easygoing prose . . . an appealingly comic cousin of Carolyn Mackler’s The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things.”—Kirkus
“I completely fell in love with Anna Bloom’s voice—it’s wry, romantic, and so, so true.”—Gabrielle Zevin, author of Elsewhere
“Engaging . . . real . . . refreshing, and natural, and the descriptions of the situations are hilarious!”—TeenReads.com
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