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| Perma-Bound Edition ©2011 | -- |
| Publisher's Hardcover ©2011 | -- |
Camps. Fiction.
Ability. Fiction.
Stepbrothers. Fiction.
Interpersonal relations. Fiction.
Individuality. Fiction.
What 10-year-old Gabe wants more than anything is a sibling, and he gets his wish when his father announces his fiancée has a son, Zack, precisely Gabe's age. But after Gabe meets super-cool skater dude Zack, he feels self-conscious about everything, especially his upcoming trip to sleepaway camp. Zack mistakenly believes that Gabe is going on an exciting wilderness adventure and is envious; what Gabe hasn't revealed is that the camp is actually geared toward brainiacs, with daily activities like problem-solving using the postulates of logical reasoning. Will Gabe's relationship with his new stepbrother sour if Zack finds out what a nerd Gabe is? Gabe composes lists of what he can safely tell Zack about camp, leaving out the poetry writing, singing songs written in binary code, and taking part in a "Lice 101" class in which they enthusiastically study the louse that has infested the camp. Though Weissman's message about individuality is mildly prescriptive and Zack's character is absent for much of the narrative, she persuasively conveys Gabe's anxiety over both living up to the perceived expectations of others and his desire to escape being labeled. Ages 8-12. (May)
School Library JournalGr 4-5 Gabe, 10, is excited about getting two things he has wanted: a brother and to go to camp. The brother is Zack, the son of his father's fianc&3;e, who is also 10 and lives across the country in L.A. The camp is the Summer Center for Gifted Enrichment. Gabe wants to appear just as cool to Zack as he thinks Zack is, so he keeps the "nerd" details about camp to himself. At SCGE, the campers have lessons in the morning, then traditional camp activities in the afternoon and evening. The campers are typical kids, pulling pranks, whining about some things, and getting homesick; they just happen to be extremely bright. Gabe enjoys his bunkmates and loves everything about camp except the food. Zack is envious of Gabe's experience, so Gabe keeps him up-to-date on what's happening, sort of. He keeps a chart of things he can tell his stepbrother and the details that probably shouldn't be mentioned, e.g., that they like learning the digits of Pi. The boys' characters are well developed and although the three adults play a minor role in the story, they are civil to one another and to both boys. In addition to being a good, humorous story, the book also illustrates that kids who are bright are just kids and can enjoy a lot of different things. Nancy P. Reeder, Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, Columbia, SC
Kirkus ReviewsGabe is torn between his enthusiasm for a summer residential program for gifted children and his fear that his new, cool stepbrother-to-be will find out he's a nerd. Just his age, 11, Zack seems like the ideal sibling to Gabe, who has always wanted one. But surfer-boy Zack really doesn't like nerds. All the things Gabe enjoys—math team, reading and the gifted program—Zack describes as weird. Luckily, sleep-away camp impresses him. Episodic chapters combine camp scenes, letters home and a growing chart of the things Gabe's done he can tell Zack about and the geeky details that he can't. The third-person narration describes the fun of a camp where students write poetry, solve problems and investigate lice with microscopes and also swim, kayak, play sports and compete in a Color War. While Gabe is trying to present six weeks of camp activities in the best light for Zack, he's also choosing them in order to avoid fellow-camper Amanda, a girl who seems to be stalking him but turns out to be someone who could be a friend. The author sets up the thematic conflict believably, but the contrast between Gabe's enjoyment and his social fears gets tiresome. The protesting goes on too long, the resolution is pat and the author's hand and purpose seems evident. This celebration of summer camp and geekiness tries too hard. (Fiction. 9-12)
Horn BookGabe realizes his cool stepbrother-to-be, Zack, won't be impressed by Gabe's enrollment in "Nerd Camp." As the six weeks of camp go along, Gabe creates a chart of "Things I Can Tell Zack" and "Things I Can't Tell Zack." Weissman gets the small details just right, and the relationships--and Gabe's stories--come to a satisfying and reasonably realistic conclusion.
ALA BooklistPerfect for kids whose quest for knowledge isn't satisfied by nine months of school, Weissman's latest novel features an appealing 10-year-old who's more certain of facts and figures than of his worth. Gabe questions his own "coolness" when he meets the boy who's about to become his stepbrother; they're the same age but worlds apart intellectually, and Gabe tries to hide from Zack all traces of his own nerdy tendencies. Weissman portrays Gabe as a sweet only child who's as excited about getting the sibling he has always wanted as he is about being admitted to a "Gifted Enrichment" camp. Over the course of six weeks of camp, he revels in his adventures and then analyzes them for their nerdiness quotient, working out logic proofs to help him figure out how much to tell Zack. Weissman depicts a camp whose academic classes sound almost as fun as kayaking and color war. These smart, funny kids learn something from a lice infestation, and it's only logical that Gabe also gains confidence in his own opinions and individuality.
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)
School Library Journal
Kirkus Reviews
Wilson's Children's Catalog
Horn Book
ALA Booklist
Chapter 1
GABE
It was so late that it was almost tomorrow. Gabe had been awake later than this only once before. That was New Year’s Eve, and his mom had let him have a sleepover with some of his math team friends. Rather than counting down to the new year when it was just ten seconds away, like most people, at 8:00 p.m. they figured out how many seconds there were until the ball dropped and then counted down ten seconds occasionally throughout the night (at 8:32 they counted down from 12,480 to 12,470).
He thought now of figuring out how many seconds there were until his train tomorrow, but that would probably just make him more excited and anxious, and Gabe needed to stop thinking about tomorrow so he could sleep.
He couldn’t help being excited about the future—the future with my new brother! he thought, even though he was trying so hard not to think at all. He remembered back to first grade, when his friend Eric’s little sister was born, and how jealous he was. “Can you please have a baby?” he’d asked his mom again and again.
“You need a mom and a dad to have a baby,” his mom had said. “And they have to want to have a baby together.”
Gabe had known even then that that wasn’t going to happen. His mom and dad were divorced—they had been divorced from the time he was a baby himself—and they wouldn’t want to have another baby together, since they didn’t even talk to each other except for a few words when one of them dropped him off with the other.
“You’re enough for me, Gabe,” his mother always told him. “I know you’d like a brother or sister, but I’m sorry. It’s going to be just us.” Sometimes she gave his head a squeeze and added, “You’ve got enough brains for two kids, anyway.”
But Gabe kept hoping that his mom would surprise him. One time, last year, Gabe made the grave mistake of asking her, excitedly, if she was pregnant. That night, she took a big black garbage bag and cleared out the pantry of everything that tasted good, and Gabe had to rely on hanging out at friends’ houses if he wanted to eat anything but leafy greens.
For some reason it never even occurred to him that his dad could be the one to get him a sibling, but that’s what was happening. And the best part was that his new brother was already his age, because his dad was marrying a woman named Carla who also had a son who was ten, Zack. They lived 2,825 miles away in Los Angeles, California (a 6-hour plane ride or 43-hour drive or a 706-hour walk!). They were visiting New York now, and Gabe was going to meet them for the first time—tomorrow! But after they got married at the end of August, Carla and Zack were going to live in New York City with Gabe’s dad, which meant that whenever Gabe went to visit his dad he’d also be visiting his brother.
Manhattan was close enough that Gabe could go visit on weekends. He and Zack could do all the fun city stuff together, like go to the Museum of Natural History, but he could also go home before he had to deal with what he imagined would be annoying things about having a brother 100 percent of the time, like fighting over using the computer or both needing the P volume of the encyclopedia at the same time. Everything about it was perfect, perfect, perfect.
As Gabe lay in bed—his homework done and on his desk even though he wasn’t going to school tomorrow, and his duffel bag packed with clothes to spend two nights in the city—he thought about his new stepbrother. Would Zack look different in person than he did in pictures? Would he be taller or shorter than Gabe? (Gabe hoped they’d be the same.) Would he wear glasses for reading or distance? (Gabe’s were for both.) Would he prefer chocolate or vanilla (Gabe liked vanilla), fiction or nonfiction (Gabe liked both equally), multiplication or division (Gabe preferred division, the longer the better)? It doesn’t matter, Gabe decided. I’ll like him no matter what, because we’re going to be brothers.
Gabe fell asleep smiling. He was going to love his new brother. They were going to become best friends.
© 2011 Elissa Brent Weissman
Excerpted from Nerd Camp by Elissa Brent Weissman
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
Pack your sleeping bag, grab your calculator, and celebrate geekdom with this humorous and empowering middle grade novel by the acclaimed author of Standing for Socks. Nerd Camp, here we come!
Ten-year-old Gabe has just been accepted to the Summer Center for Gifted Enrichment. That means he’ll be spending six weeks at sleepaway camp, writing poetry and perfecting logic proofs. S.C.G.E. has been a summer home to some legendary middle-school smarty-pants (and future Jeopardy! contestants), but it has a reputation for being, well, a Nerd Camp. S.C.G.E = Smart Camp for Geeks and Eggheads.
But is Gabe really a geek? He’s never thought about it much—but that was before he met Zack, his hip, LA-cool, soon-to-be stepbrother. Gabe worries that Zack will see him only as a nerd, until a wild summer at camp—complete with a midnight canoe ride to “Dead Man’s Island”—helps Gabe realize that he and Zack have the foundations for a real friendship.
This clever, fun read from Elissa Brent Weissman is full of great minor characters (like a bunkmate who solves math problems in his sleep) and silly subplots (like the geekiest lice outbreak ever). Adjust your head-gear, pack your camp bag, and get ready to geek out!