Shredderman: Secret Identity by Wendelin Van Draanen is one of my absolute favorite kids books. It has inspired me in a lot of ways, and this website would probably not exist had I not read the book.
I first discovered it in the school library and soon became encapsulated in it. I was reading it at the end of school and the teacher announced that it was time to pack up.
I didn’t hear the teacher, however, so engrossed was I in the book. A few minutes later I looked up and realized that everyone was already out the door. I don’t think I’ve ever been into any book that much before or since!
Summary
The main character in Shredderman is a kid named Nolan Byrd. Nolan is a nerd, the smartest kid in fourth grade but also one of the least popular. He eats lunch by himself every day and is constantly bullied and called nicknames such as “Turd.”
The worst bully at Nolan’s school is a kid named Bubba Bixby. Bubba is in Nolan’s class and constantly torments not only him, but the entire school.
Luckily, Nolan has a really cool teacher named Mr. Green. Mr. Green drives a hippy van and plays guitar. But when he assigns the class a term project, Nolan is not exactly enthusiastic. He’s not very good at hands on stuff.
For this project, however, Mr. Green asks the class to become reporters. This should be easy for Nolan because his dad’s a reporter. And then Nolan suddenly gets hit with a great, once in a lifetime, idea.
He should start a website and expose what Bubba’s been doing! Granted, Nolan doesn’t know how to create a website, but a few late nights should fix that. He convinces his mom to let him use her credit card to pay for the hosting, and the site is live.
Of course, Nolan can’t share his true identity. If Bubba sees the website and finds out who did it, he’ll pummel them for sure. His secret identity? Shredderman.
Nolan uses clever ways to spread the word about the site and before long the school is paying attention to shredderman.com.
Things change, and Bubba even gets suspended! Mr. Green realizes that Nolan is Shredderman, but he doesn’t rat him out. No, he even offers to be his sidekick! That’s how the Bouncer was born.
This is a super inspiring book of a nerd creating an awesome website that saves the kids from the horrible terror that is Bubba.
Review
I haven’t made it any secret that this is one of my favorite books ever. I’ve read it several dozen times, and it never loses its magic.
Nolan tells us the story from the first person in a really realistic and exciting way. Nolan is a super awesome kid, and almost anyone would want to be like him.
After reading this book I became interested in creating websites. I read it in third grade and my passion for making websites has only gotten stronger.
Every kid loves this book. For reluctant readers, for frequent readers, for ANY type of reader, this is simply the best. Elementary school boys love Shredderman!
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