Into the Wild Nerd Yonder

Reader: Meghan K
Age: 14
Title: Into the Wild Nerd Yonder
Author: Julie Halpern
Publisher: Feiwell and Friends
Pub Date: Fall '09
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: Yes
Annotation: When Jessie's longtime friend betrays her, Jessie begins a perilous quest to the depths of the social scene to find friends who treat her well.
Recommend: Yes
How would you convince your friends to read the book: I think I stumbled upon this book at exactly the right time. In the past year or so, my friends have gained completely new interests, wildly divergent from mine, and got into the exciting habit of completely ignoring me when "cooler" people were around, and then constantly putting me down. Hooray!
Compelling Aspect of the Book: Jessie, the realistic and intelligent heroine of Into The Wild Nerd Yonder has similar problems to mine. Her friends begin to use her to get in with her older brother's punk-rock crowd, and then one of them goes after Jessie's longtime crush. Admittedly, my friends weren't being THAT big of jerks, but it was really nice to read about a character having similar issues to the ones I was having. Also, Dungeons and Dragons is in the book! How can you not like that?
Did you finish: Yes
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents: I don't really like this cover. I'm not a fan of the color pink. The musician, on the other hand, is up for debate.
Age Range: 12-13, 14-15, 16-17
Quality: 4Q Better than most
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal