Nerds by Michael Buckely

Nerds is an amazing book.  Written by Michael Buckley, highly acclaimed author of the Sister's Grimm stories.  This book will surely grab the attention of anyone who reads it.  It is about a boy named Jackson Jones who was the popular bully of his school.  After getting extensive braces on his teeth he becomes his worst nightmare, a nerd!  During this time he becomes a bit of a spy.

When Jackson is shoved into a locker he is transported to a secret underground base beneath his school.  By accident he receives powerful nano byte upgrades to his braces giving him the ability to morph his braces into tools and weapons with only using his mind.  After receiving his upgrades he wakes up seeing the "nerd herd" staring down at him.  The nerd herd is a collection of the biggest nerds in the history of 5th grade.  He then realizes that they got upgrades as well, though not by accident.  Jackson is inducted into a secret team, the Nerds- the National Espionage Rescue and Defense Society.  Though he has upgrades like the team he does not fit in.  But they are facing a dangerous enemy, Doctor Felix Jigsaw, who wants to destroy the world.  If the team wants to stop him Jackson will have to do what he thought was impossible- collaborate with the Nerds!

This book is quite amazing!  Michael Buckley is very talented.  There are funny little parts of each story, sometimes between each chapter.  They make you do silly things to get a higher security clearance- like lick the security sensor on the page or fork over some cash!  My favorite part of this book was learning about the Nerds superpowers and how they fit in with presumed weaknesses like "super allergies". The super allergies allow you to sense things like danger and dishonesty.  It is also interesting to see how the team gets around school while actually secretly doing spying and out of this world missions.

This is a series of 4 books right now.  Though there is going to be a fifth.  I have read the first, third and fourth books and I hope to get the second.  I would recommend this book to kids from 9 and up- it's great for all ages.  I give this book a 5 star rating.