Nerd Girls: Rise of the Dorkasaurus by Alan Lawrence Sitomer

There were a few parts of this story that I liked, but the ending was so poorly thought out that it kind of ruined the whole book for me.  Maurine is an overweight 13 year old who has major self esteem problems.  She knows she is a loser and stuffs her face with "chocolate love" to deal with her emotions.  She becomes friends with two other social outcasts, and together they decide to enter the school talent show with the hopes of beating the "Three P's," the mean popular girls in the class. They have a hard time choosing a talent, but then Maurine's brother devises a robotic dog and the girls develop a dance routine with the dog that is pretty good.  The day before the talent show the three P's destroy the dog, so the nerd girls have to do a very lame plan B for the show. It is OK, though, because Maurine's brother sprinkles some kind of powder on the three P's as they are about to get their picture taken for the school yearbook that makes their eyebrows instantly fall off without their knowledge and thus the girls have their revenge. (no kidding).  So my question is, how did that ending ever get past an editor?  Number 1 problem: would the popular girls really allow a total stranger to come and put powder on their face?  Number 2 problem: wouldn't a powder that was strong enough to make someone's eyebrows fall off instantly, also be a serious eye irritant, and also make their head hair fall out as well?  Number 3 problem: Has anyone ever heard of an over-the-counter hair remover that is a powder and works instantly?  I could go on, but you get the picture.

Even if we ignored the amazingly improbable ending, this still wasn't a great book.  There were pages where Maurine was wallowing in self pity that I just had to skip over because I couldn't take any more.  Also, repeatedly people do very unfair and unkind things to Maurine, and she decides to not tell the adults and somehow this, in the story, was a good thing. Also, throughout the book Maurine calls her friends terrible names, and continually makes fun of them because of their physical challenges.  Anyway, this is a good one to skip.(220 p)