High school is never easy. But when your last name is Mayo and you’ve been labeled a nerd and you’ve been placed in Wood Shop instead of Computer Animation class, it’s nearly impossible. Tom Mayo, nicknamed “Miracle Wimp” by the “Donkeys” (meat-headed jocks) at school, has only his snarky humor to help him get by. He makes friends with Rob and Barry at the beginning of the year but learns they are no better than the Donkeys. He survives his driver’s test and his first job and even meets a girl he likes enough to brave the phone and ask her out. Unfortunately, Tom finds dating isn’t what he expected. Kraft’s first for older children is as sly and dry as his Lenny and Mel series for the early-chapte-book crowd. Most of the final art was not seen, but it will be rendered in Kraft’s signature block-headed line drawings. The humor, short chapters and drawings will snag reluctant readers, and the outsiders among them will definitely relate. (Fiction. YA)
