Nerdlandia

Summary: Nerdlandia is a play by Gary Soto. It details the love story of two Chicano high school juniors. Martin; a Chicano nerd who falls in madly in love with beautiful popular and bad girl Cici. With the help of his ‘cooler’ amigos, Martin aka Jr. Einstein, puts himself through a physical and mental transformation in the hopes of impressing Cici and her overly influential friends. Secretly though Cici is also in love with Martin the Nerd and is herself going through a transformation from a Chola wannabe to a nerd in order to impress Martin. Throughout the story the reader will encounter topics such as teenage love, identity, poverty, realities of the barrio, stereotypes, and breaking the mold. Through dialogue between the characters and monologues Gary Soto speaks directly to the audience about the possibilities of being brown and educated.

CLD Students: This play is appropriate for all CLD students, especially adolescent learners. Due to the format being a play, all students are able to access the story through reader’s theatre. While reading and performing this play students will be able to make many text to self and text to world connections. Whether the students reading this play are Hispanic or not, they will be able to relate to the challenges the characters face because of race, poverty, identity, and adolescence.

Related Materials/Resources:

https://novelstudies-cfisd-ms.wikispaces.com/file/view/Nerd+Landia+By+Gary+Soto.pdf

Study Guide by Gary Soto

Gary Soto Author Information:

http://www.garysoto.com/bio.html

http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Sh-Z/Soto-Gary.html

http://www.umich.edu/~ac213/student_projects08/latlit/soto.html

Available Formats and Languages: English, Spanish, audiobook, paperback, hard cover, Kindle

Age Range: 7-12th grade

ISBN: 13: 978-0698117846