Bad Grammar by Nathan Luff

Bad Grammar by Nathan Luff. Pub.  Walker Books, 2013.

Marcus is a computer game warrior. He is very good and spends hours playing on line but he has no friends and his parents are worried about him and his social development. They decide to send him to a private school out in the country where there are no computers.

The school proves to be nothing like anybody would think. The staff and the Principal are weird and leave discipline to selected prefects who rule by bullying and intimidation. Head bully is Scarface who is big mean with a neck thicker than most boys are wide.

Marcus gets hammered first day and has his flash drive, on which he has stored all his gaming information, taken by Scarface. He does make a couple of friends but has to apply the skills he has learned as an on-line warrior to survive at school.

Very funny and exciting with a message that you need friends and if bullies are to be beaten you have to confront the problem head on preferably when the odds are in your favour.

The novel is written in Levels rather than chapters and some of the action is comically absurd yet meaningful. I enjoyed this story which has hooks at the end of each chapter to help the most reluctant of boys want to keep reading.

Primary and Intermediate in appeal.