“There is a lot going on in Confessions of a High School Word Nerd. Inside, ten recent university graduates come clean about an unforgettable high school experience by using their humor and a wide range of SAT words. One author remembers the planning that went into going after her first kiss. One eighth grade story goes back to band camp; at Camp Bernie, water balloons were used to conquer the chosen opponents each year.
Three of the many SAT words included in that story include valorous, invective, and fatuous, with their corresponding definitions listed at the bottom of the page. The editors of this book contributed their stories, too, which involve escapades with cars. Colleen Kinder writes about her experience breaking in the family car, nicknamed “The Whale.” One scheme involved strapping her friend to the roof of The Whale like a deer - all in the name of a school assignment, of course.
Of all the stories in this book, Arianne Cohen’s car story would have been the most embarrassing to live through. She writes an entertaining story about the night she was bored at fourteen and decided to “play with the car.” However, the car belonged to a new family she was temporarily staying with while she was attending school.
Besides editing Confessions of a High School Word Nerd and being 2003 university graduates, Arianne Cohen and Colleen Kinder have both written books of their own: Help, It’s Broken!: The Fix-It Bible for the Repair-Impaired by Cohen, and Delaying the Real World: A Twentysomething’s Guide to Seeking Adventure by Kinder.
The voices of the stories in this book come from a wide range of high schools. There is an all-male high school where student focus turns to pranks way before April 1. Lauren Keane’s story pits city teenager girls against private school teenage girls in a soccer game filled with SAT words and hi-jinx. Homeschooler graduate Timothy Michael Cooper never attended a high school himself, but he found the humor in his preparations to get into college and shared those memories for this book. Each of the ten authors has found a way to ease over one hundred common SAT words into their personal reminisces of high school. The editors have also compiled a glossary of SAT words in the back of the book, and at the end of each story, there’s a small informational paragraph about the author.
With this book, it’s as if you’re listening to a friend recall a funny story - and studying at the same time.”
- from Curled Up With a Good Kid’s Book: A Reading Resource for Kids, Teachers, Librarians, & Parents
