SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About TLT
  • Reviews
    • Book Reviews
    • A to Z Book Lists
    • Book Review Policy
  • Teen Issues
  • Middle Grade Mondays
  • Programs
    • TPiB
    • Tech Talk
  • Professional
    • Teen Services 101
    • Things We Didn’t Learn in Library School
  • MakerSpace
  • Projects
    • #SVYALit
    • #FSYALit
    • #MHYALit
    • #Poverty in YA Lit

March 10, 2022 by Amanda MacGregor

Book Review: Worser by Jennifer Ziegler

March 10, 2022 by Amanda MacGregor   Leave a Comment

Publisher’s description

A bullied 12-year-old boy must find a new normal after his mother has a stroke and his life is turned upside down.

William Wyatt Orser, a socially awkward middle schooler, is a wordsmith who, much to his annoyance, acquired the ironically ungrammatical nickname of “Worser” so long ago that few people at school know to call him anything else.

Worser grew up with his mom, a professor of rhetoric and an introvert just like him, in a comfortable routine that involved reading aloud in the evenings, criticizing the grammar of others, ignoring the shabby mess of their house, and suffering the bare minimum of social interactions with others. But recently all that has changed. His mom had a stroke that left her nonverbal, and his Aunt Iris has moved in with her cats, art projects, loud music, and even louder clothes. Home for Worser is no longer a refuge from the unsympathetic world at school that it has been all his life.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Feeling lost, lonely, and overwhelmed, Worser searches for a new sanctuary and ends up finding the Literary Club—a group of kids from school who share his love of words and meet in a used bookstore– something he never dreamed existed outside of his home. Even more surprising to Worser is that the key to making friends is sharing the thing he holds dearest: his Masterwork, the epic word notebook that he has been adding entries to for years.

But relationships can be precarious, and it is up to Worser to turn the page in his own story to make something that endures so that he is no longer seen as Worser and earns a new nickname, Worder.

Amanda’s thoughts

Meet Worser—William Wyatt Orser, or, W. Orser. You want to meet Worser. Trust me. You’ll finish this novel and want to go back and look at all his Masterwork lists and make some of your own. He’s smart, weird, and so vulnerable and lonely you will just want to be his best friend.

That description up there says an awful lot about the plot, true, but it doesn’t really capture the amazing voice of Worser and the real challenges and changes he is facing. As readers watch him adjust to living with his mother, post-stroke, and his aunt (who has such good intentions but is like the exact opposite of Worser and the way he’s used to living), we see him choose to lose himself in words and lists while desperately trying to cling to the life he knew before (just Worser and his clever, quick-witted mom). Budget cuts restrict the school library’s hours and Worser goes off in search of a new hiding place, landing at a local bookstore run by a rather cranky guy who reluctantly lets Worser hang out there, eventually also letting the literary club (run by Worser’s crush) use the store as a meeting space, too. It’s here that Worser begins to make some connections and step outside of himself a teensy tiny bit. But it’s not like suddenly things are great. He’s still awkward. He still has to go home to a mom who is nothing like the mother he’s always known and to an aunt who makes him bonkers. He’s still grieving and lonely and not sure what choices to make to make things better (and, in fact, he makes some choices that make things a lot worse). But things are changing, hopefully for the better, even if it all looks like an utter mess leading up to these changes.

Full of heart, this book features a character readers won’t soon forget. Powerful, emotional, and so clever. Now I’m off to reread some of Worser, I mean Worder’s, lists again.

Review copy (ARC) courtesy of the publisher

ISBN-13: 9780823449569
Publisher: Holiday House
Publication date: 03/15/2022
Age Range: 9 – 12 Years

Filed under: Uncategorized

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments
Book reviewsFamiliesGriefLanguageMiddle Grade BooksStrokes

About Amanda MacGregor

Amanda MacGregor works in an elementary library, loves dogs, and can be found on Twitter @CiteSomething.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

September 2023

Cindy Crushes Programming: Book Page Painting

by Amanda MacGregor

August 2023

Cindy Crushes Programming: Summer Reading is Over, Now What?

by Amanda MacGregor

July 2023

Can't wait For Barbie? Try these graphic novels!

by Amanda MacGregor

July 2023

Have Some Barbie Movies to Start Off Barbie Season Right by Riley Jensen

by Amanda MacGregor

May 2023

Have Some New 2023 Mysteries and Thrillers by Riley Jensen

by Amanda MacGregor

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

Peter Brown and the WILD ROBOT Trilogy

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Review of the Day: Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith, ill. Boulet

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Exclusive: New Sibling Adventure Story from Papercutz | News and Preview

by Brigid Alverson

Heavy Medal

Memoirs, big families and road trips, oh my: Wednesday Roundup: Graphic Novels

by Emily Mroczek-Bayci

Teen Librarian Toolbox

Book Review: Kin: Rooted in Hope by Carole Boston Weatherford, Jeffery Boston Weatherford (Illustrator)

by Amanda MacGregor

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

Peter Brown Visits The Yarn to talk about The Wild Robot Protects

by Colby Sharp

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

Some of YA's Biggest Names Collaborate on "Blackout," a 2021 Release About Black Love

Cover Reveal & Interview: UNEQUAL by Michael Eric Dyson and Marc Favreau

Laurie Halse Anderson Won’t Be Silent

Books Restricted, Removed in MS, IA, OR, and FL Districts; 'Out of Darkness' Stays at NC High School | Censorship Roundup

Tonya Bolden: Capturing History’s Rhymes

Commenting for all posts is disabled after 30 days.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Age Level
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Neverending Search
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Summer Programming Survey
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2023


COPYRIGHT © 2023