Word Nerd
Imagine being twelve and not having any friends, and the highlight of your week is playing Scrabble with your mother. Welcome to the world of Ambrose, the boy who loved words but just didn’t fit him. His mother kept a short leash on him as she’s overly protective; always fearing the worse will emerge and swallow him up. Poor Ambrose, lived in a plastic bubble, his mother didn’t realize the harm she was causing her son as she believed she was just keeping him safe from the dangerous world that surrounded him. Being so sheltered and always on the move to another city, as danger crept too close to where they were, Ambrose was a target and bullied repeatedly. My heart went out to him. He had no choice but to listen to his mother as he tried to act strong when the words and the actions beat down on him when inside he was lonely and hurt. He finally gets a break when his mom signs him up for correspondence school and this action takes a dramatic change in his life. More time alone at home allows him to become a more independent person, and the idea of less lying gets swept under the rug. He’s becoming a person, he’s speaking out for himself and for once in his life he acquires a friend. Ok, it might be the friend you’d hope for but if you throw stereotypes away, you’d change your mind. As Ambrose starts to become a person, he finally likes himself and he finds worth in life and within. Sounds too perfect…. and it is. Mom, she blind to the fact of who Ambrose is becoming until it’s too late, he’s found himself and he doesn’t want to go back to the child that mom wants. The descriptions of the way Ambrose lives, I know other teens would be embarrassed yet Ambrose knew it was the best his mother could provide. All these details gave me a more complete character, a person who I truly was cheering on. He found humor in the most unusual places and he was determined to rise above, if only he could get out from under his mother’s wings. And just think, this started with a peanut.
2
