Review Detail

“Gigi Shin Is Not a Nerd” by Lyla Lee takes readers into the world of Gigi, a middle school girl with high aspirations to be an artist. Growing up in a Korean-American family doesn’t make it easy for her, though, as she finds that there are expectations put on her to be good at math and science, and to plan for a career that follows from those subjects. She doesn’t know quite what to do to make her parents understand her profound love of art.

When she finds out about Starscape, a top-of-the-line summer art program in New York, she desperately wants to attend. Her parents can’t even wrap their heads around the idea, and she feels like she’ll never get their approval. She and her friends decide that the only chance any of them have of attending the prestigious Starscape program is to raise money on their own to prove that they are capable, responsible, and truly deserving of attending. So, they start a tutoring program, a la the Babysitter’s Club, so that they can raise funds and help people all at the same time.

All is going well until Gigi has some academic problems of her own on a science quiz, and her parents start to question her ability to handle everything she has taken on. She is determined to make it clear that she is perfectly able to handle everything, they just have to let her prove it.

Aside from academics and tutoring, crushes and friend drama fill the pages of this first book in a new series. Readers will be eager to learn what happens next to Gigi and her friends as they embark on more tutoring, art, and middle school adventures.