Books for Friday- BFF

Many months ago, I read about  University of Calgary research into competitive Scrabble players' skills that showed these players had changed their process of reading in unexpected ways. I was fascinated to hear that there was a local club. If you want to up your game, check it out @ http://www.calgary374.org/HomePage.php. 

With this percolating in my mind when I saw the book, The Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen- Fernlund and read the blurb, I had to read it. Also, having a son with a peanut allergy made me unable to resist a book where Ambrose, a 12 year-old, friendless nerd is almost killed when school bullies force him to eat a peanut in his sandwich. His over protective mother (sensible in this instance I say) starts to home school Ambrose. Unbeknownst to mom, Amrose starts a friendship with an ex-con who also loves Scrabble. This is simply a great book for any age.

Previously I had read Dear George Clooney: Please Marry My Mom, by the same author. Another 12 year-old main character, this time a girl named Violet, is dealing the with aftermath of her parents' divorce. TV-director Dad has left mom and moved from Vancouver (same setting as Word Nerd) and moved to LA with his trophy wife. Violet and her younger sister struggle with the divorce in ways that are sad, funny and sometimes shocking. When their mom starts to date a man called Dudley Weiner, Violet and her friend take things into their hands in an attempt to catch George Clooney.


I enjoyed both these books and the fact they were set in Vancouver, a city where I enjoyed living years ago, was an added bonus.