Nerd Camp by Elissa Brent Weissman is a book that will make you smile.

Ten-year-old Gabe is excited about his summer for two reasons: (1) he’s been accepted to the Summer Center for Gifted Enrichment, a six-week sleepaway camp, and (2) his father is getting remarried, which means that he’s getting a new brother his age named Zack.

But Zack is not at all what Gabe expected in a brother. Zack is a cool ten-year-old from L.A. with a cell phone and gel in his hair. He dismisses as “nerdy” a lot of things Gabe likes (such as reading and math team). He’s jealous of Gabe’s plan to go to sleepaway camp, but Gabe doesn’t dare admit what type of camp it is.

The truth is that Gabe is looking forward to learning logical reasoning, writing poetry, and memorizing the digits of pi with his bunkmates in addition to kayaking and swimming and all that camp stuff. But Zack’s perspective makes him ask the question:  “Am I a nerd who only has nerdy adventures?”

His hypothesis is “no,” but it will take a summer full of nerd camp escapades for him to prove it to himself.

This book won the Cybils Award in 2011. Larrabee and I both enjoyed it, and Larrabee’s already read the sequel, Nerd Camp 2.0.

Highly recommended for cool nerds of all ages (especially ages 8-10).