Allergy-plagued Alice can't touch a mango without breaking out in a rash, and if she eats wheat, her vision goes blurry.

Klutzy to the extreme, Barbara is a beanpole who often embarrasses herself in front of the whole school.

These outcasts don't have much in common -- other than the fact that they are often targets of the ThreePees: the Pretty, Popular, Perfect girls who rule the school. But one day Maureen decides that it's time to topple the eight-grade social regime. She joins forces with Alice and Barbara and the Nerd Girls enter the school talent show, determined to take the crown from the ThreePees.

Will their routine be enough to de-throne the popular crowd? Or will their plan backfire and shake their hold on the bottom rung of the social ladder?

"With a keen eye, Sitomer portrays the callous social hierarchy of middle school. . . .readers will be cheering for these girls as they bravely go forth, proudly proclaiming their nerdiness."

"Mean Girls meets Revenge of the Nerds, middle-school style, in a novel that peeks into the lives of an offbeat cast of 13-year-olds."