Entertaining story that centers around the national Youth Scrabble Tournament. The novel's perspective is divided among three main protagonists: Duncan Dorfman, April Blunt, and Nate Saviano. Each of them has their own motivation and concerns, which they bring with them to the tournament. I enjoyed the way that this story incorporates the lore and flavor of Scrabble, but readers who are unfamiliar with the game can easily follow the story.

NCCBA 2013 nominee
I wondered how a book about youth Scrabble players could possibly be interesting. Meg Wolitzer's book was excellently written. It had so many elements of interest: bullying, ethical choices, lying by adults, parents not acting Appropriately,
friendship. Middle school boys as well as girls would enjoy this book. ( )

This is a juvenile fiction book about a 12 year-old boy who has the unexplained power to "read" with his fingers. He can touch a written word with his eyes closed and is able to read it. This proves to be a boon to playing Scrabble, since he can reach into the bag of tiles and select the letters he wants. The novel revolves around how he chooses to reveal and/or hide this power. Numerous subplots concerning friendships, loyalty, bullying, family secrets, and cheating would make this book appealing to its intended audience of junior high students. Scrabble fans would enjoy the numerous lists of acceptable words for Scrabble games. (Did you know that qi is an acceptable word, as are ki and xi, at least according to this book?) I found the story to be just “OK” (not acceptable in Scrabble, again according to this author).. ( )

Duncan Dorfman has the ability to "read" with his fingertips. The local Scrabble champ/bully want to exploit Duncan's ability to win a national Scrabble tournament. At the tournament, Duncan crosses paths with two other teams who are doing their best to not only win the competition but also figure out their place in the world.

A little bit of The View from Saturday and a little bit of (the much more obscure, hence given with author's name) Louis Sachar's Card-Turner. And I'm glad I read Word Freak too. Good to know that you can become a tournament-level Scrabble player in six weeks.