Geekhood

Geekhood by Andy Robb (Close Encounters of the Girl Kind)

Paperback at £6.99

There are dozens of books for girls in their early teens in which the heroine falls for the cool handsome guy but seems to have no chance till the last chapter, many of them great reads (Jenny Valentine’s Broken Soup’ comes to mind). However, there seem to be few books for boys carrying the equivalent theme (though the Airborn fantasy books by Kenneth Opel are excellent).

   In Geekhood, Archie is a very ordinary boy of fourteen who's family background is in flux. The divorce is going through, his Dad is moving away, he has poor relations with his Mum's new boyfriend and, on top of all this, he's bullied at school. However, he can escape all this by spending all his spare time painting small model characters and playing Dungeons and Dragons with three close friends, that is, until he meets Sarah. Sarah is beautiful, is willing to join the boys in their roleplay games and, most amazingly, seems to like Archie. His journey away from his friends and into romance is funny and sad and ultimately rewarding for him and all those round him.

   This book for young teen boys is a great read which fills a gap with humour and great honesty, even to the point of occasional vulgarity. Sensitive yet great fun.

If you too, paint small characters look up our Games Workshop blog http://cotswoldbookstoregamesworkshop.blogspot.co.uk/