NERDS 5: Attack of the Bullies

NERDS #5

by Michael Buckley

The grand finale to the best-selling series, Attack of the BULLIES stars Ruby Peet, aka Agent Pufferfish, the team captain with super nanobyte-enhanced allergies. Pufferfish leads the team in their latest the kidnapping of the president' s daughter. But the NERDS discover she hasn' t been kidnapped - she' s been recruited. Their former librarian, Ms. Holiday, has started a rival organization called BULLIES, who each have their own nanobyte-enhanced upgrades. The BULLIES' go back in time to make sure NERDS never existed! When Ruby' s teammates begin to vanish one by one, she enlists Agent Brand and Heathcliff Hodges to go back to the 1970s and help the original nerdy secret agents make sure that the future is not erased from existence! Attack of the BULLIES promises action, humor, and a dramatic conclusion to the series.

Genres: Nerd, Middle Grade, Science Fiction, Fiction, Adventure, Mystery, Humor

Audible Audio

First published September 1, 2013

About the author

New York Times bestselling author Michael Buckley was born in Akron, Ohio. He tried his hand as a stand-up comic and lead singer for a punk rock back before attending Ohio University. After graduating with honors he moved to New York City to be an intern on the Late Show with David Letterman which led to stints developing programming for Discovery Networks, MTV, MTV Animation and Klasky Csupo (producers of Nickelodeon’s Rugrats). Today he lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife, Alison, and their son Finn.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Odith Senerath · Rating 5 out of 5]

E X T R A O R D I N A R Y

[Melissa Riggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great series for middle-graders or read aloud for intermediate students. It ended with a bang with a favorite character turning bad, a bad-guy turning good, time travel, and a group of detention thugs getting crazy upgrades! Don't miss out.

"The grand finale to the New York Times bestselling series, Attack of the BULLIES stars Ruby Peet, aka Agent Pufferfish, the team captain with super nanobyte-enhanced allergies. Pufferfish leads the team in their latest case: the kidnapping of the president’s daughter. But the NERDS discover she hasn’t been kidnapped—she’s been recruited. Their former librarian, Ms. Holiday, has started a rival organization called BULLIES, who each have their own nanobyte-enhanced upgrades. The BULLIES’ plan: go back in time to make sure NERDS never existed! When Ruby’s teammates begin to vanish one by one, she enlists Agent Brand and Heathcliff Hodges to go back to the 1970s and help the original nerdy secret agents make sure that the future is not erased from existence! Attack of the BULLIES promises action, humor, and a dramatic conclusion to the series."

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good ending for Buckley's second series. NERDS has a lot of really excellent juvenile humor, & the wrap-up is effective. Also, extra points for making his nerdy middle-school-aged incarnation into a character, as a founding member of NERDS - Agent Beanpole. It makes the reader smile, & also helps get across the subtle point running through the series that being bullied sucks, but it eventually ends, or at least ceases to matter.

[Kellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last in the NERDS series, but definitely as good as the first! Miss Information (formerly Ms. Holiday) is using a time machine and her team of BULLIES to make sure the NERDS never exist. With the help of former NERDS (including Mikey Buckley, AKA Agent Beanpole, himself) they might just be able to stop her.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the book and loved its message: "There will be days when life seems hard, when the bullies corner you or hurt your heart, but those days won't last. They can't last. Some day soon the world will look fresh and full of possibilities and your days of being picked on will end - just like this story. And that, my friends, is when your real story will truly begin. I promise."

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not our favorite in the series, but a satisfying end to a most enjoyable series. Oboe players might be offended by some parts of it, but otherwise it hit all the right notes and wrapped everything up perfectly.

[YoHaNnAaaaaaaaaa ^_^ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I personally liked the NERDS series. Well it’s more like I liked the beginning of it. By the end it started getting a bit lame because so many people went evil or crazy or something. That’s why I stopped reading the last book of this series midway.

[retrieverfever · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ending to the series I love it
Follow my other reports on nerds!

[Daryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

SPOILERS FOR WHOLE SERIES


This whole series was my Roman Empire as a kid. No joke. When this book dropped it was one of the greatest moments of my 6th grade LIFE. I carried this book around everywhere at school to make the other 6 NERDS fans at my school so jealous.

I had (and still have) so much love for these characters. When I had asthma all I thought of was that Mathilda Choi also had asthma, or when I DIDN'T have allergies all I could think of was that I'd never be Ruby Peet. Duncan Dewey inspired me with his kindness, Flinch with his determination, Jackson with his ability to change and admit his wrongs. The Hyena was also a great character, while not technically a NERD, in that she got me to confront a lot of the pre-conceived notions I had about "girly girls" at that age, when society's general degradation of anything feminine was really starting to effect the way I saw myself and girls my own age. Genuinely the 3rd NERDS book was a massive wake-up call on the fact that I was just as guilty as Matilda for judging other girls for being "girly" based on societal notions and my own insecurities.

The N.E.R.D.S. felt like the answer to my child insecurities of being a grade-A dweeb. This series made me think of my weaknesses as potential strengths (that could get me recruited to the human equivalent of OWCA.), and showed me that there's a community in being a massive dork. In particular, with this book, seeing a nerdy, Jewish girl as a protagonist really meant a lot to me at a time where I felt like I wasn't much of anything. The way self-esteem, bullying, parental drama, and societal/internalized misogyny were all topics that this series touched on in a humorous, but meaningful way really formulated a lot of my worldview and my eventual writing style. Also the general humor of this series holds up incredibly well, enough for me to still enjoy cracking these open again just to feel something in my cold, dead heart. The in-between transitions of these series are also top-notch world building/humor devices. Michael Buckley, thank you so much for giving child-me characters and a world to latch onto, look up to, and find comfort in.

Just bought the first one for my younger cousin and I'm hoping to inspire the next N.E.R.D. agent in the making.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

By all rights, the final book in the NERDS series should have been a thrilling finale. Miss Information is a very entertaining villain, while the BULLIES, the evil counterpart to the NERDS, are also good characters. My favorite part of this book was the dossiers on past members of NERDS.

I absolutely love Ruby Peet. Finally, the leader of the team is the main character in a NERDS book. She is smart, aggressive, and Jewish to boot. I am glad she has blonde kinky hair, a hair type common among Jews but unacknowledged.

However, this book went awry when time travel was introduced. Alexander Brand just goes back in time and prevents Ms. Holiday from becoming evil. That resets the timeline of the whole series, negating most of the plot of the series. That really felt like a cop-out ending.

[Eric Borum · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of my New Years resolutions was to finish more series that I had started. I remember liking the NERDS series and I only had one short book left in the series, so I decided to give it a shot. And yeah, I’ve definitely outgrown this story. But I still love many children’s series, so I won’t give it much slack for being a kid’s series. I was just never drawn into the story. The writing made me acutely aware that I was reading a book and I never got lost in it. I appreciated some of the jokes, but most didn’t land. And the plot... it was insane. Plot holes left and right. If I, an adult, was confused, I’m sure it would be for kids too. This series did not age well for me. Perhaps the other books are better, but this was a disappointing conclusion to this series.

[Samantha Sanchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started to read this books when I was about 11 years old and this books made me believe that reading is not boring at all, now that I have finished the entire series I feel so happy and sad because I have been growing up with these characters. I have tried to read children's books at this age but I find them boring but this one kept me so interested all the time. I love how each one of the characters developed and grew. These books will always have a space inside my reader heart. To anyone reading this review I recommend the series one hundred percent.

[Wataru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely fun sci-fi and deals with many themes, such as a government's willingness to exploit others if it may rise, and how even children can play an extremely large role in the world. The wrap-up, as one reviewer noted, was quick and sweet. Not drawn out, but not jarring either. It also deals with the importance of family and how being kept in the dark can be curse and a blessing. Specifically the fact that Ruby Peet, the main character of this book, has to hide the fact that she's a secret agent from her family.

[Caden H · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like action and excitement in a book than this book is for you. Ruby Pett is a 7th grader with a secret of being a spy. Juggling school and spy work she figures out that former friend of Ruby ms. Holiday has been going back in time to make sure that the nerds are never born. Once Ruby figures out about this she goes back in time to save her friends and possibly her whole life.

[Tiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final installment in this fun series. It wasn't my favorite, just because things got a little wacky to get everything all tied up nicely at the end, but still super fun. My kids were super sad to have the series end. They have really enjoyed these.

[Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the final book in the NERDS series, this does a lovely job of concluding the story of the characters while still leaving the future wonderfully open. The split perspective from Ruby and Heathcliff is interesting, and the story itself is very entertaining.

[Shelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the last book in the series I don’t want to say much about what is happening in this book. As a series it was funny, each book featured one of the agents and it all wrapped up nicely by the end of this book.

[Regina · Rating 5 out of 5]

AWESOME

I NEED ANOTHER
I consider reading this book and the series
I would give the series a million stars of i could

[Tyler Standish · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny adventure that teaches about physics and standing up to bullies.

[Yaqoub Kiblawi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the charecters.

[Mr SA Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a great book and i recommend it

I really enjoyed it and like the other books in the series and is funny from start to finish

No matter how old or young

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the books description.

[cleo s · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ending of this series is pretty crazy!

[Brian Medford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun series.

[ruby dews · Rating 4 out of 5]

aka the one with all the continuity errors. and that’s saying something bc the whole series has a lot of continuity errors

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable series. Loved listening to with my kids.

[Melanie Pienaar · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️
A solid ending to a fun series.

[p]

i think?? finished this sometime in jan 2014

[Moonie · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this is a hilarious, touching finale ... an entire star off for the complete lack of the Hyena. It's the GRAND FINALE! And you couldn't even bring back one of the main characters of the first book? Sigh.

Like all the books, it has severe continuity issues (did... did he forget that Heathcliff and Miss Information had a conversation at the end of the previous books?) which were particularly jarring due to the fact it was the last installment and therefore the last chance to fix things.

I did love Ruby's family, and Miss Holiday's backstory, and Heathcliff's entire storyline was perfection (though I wanted a bit more of a dramatic conclusion to his and Ruby's conflict) but over all, it feels like Mr. Buckley rushed this book out the door to work on Undertow. Character dynamics are forgotten, relationships are ignored (do you remember Duncan and Matilda's relationship? Neither do they!) important characters don't even get a passing mention (Gerdie?) and it feels like this isn't so much a grand finale as another installment. It feels like this was supposed to be the penultimate or even third to last book (followed by a Heathcliff, or even Hyena novel) that was quickly turned into a conclusion.

Overall, this novel seemed to display a lack of respect to fans - I know us older fans of NERDs are rare and few, but we can /tell/ when a book is rushed. I don't think an author like Derek Landy or John Green would ever do this.

While unrelated to the writing, I felt the illustrations were lacking - only twelve (ignoring the author inserts) compared to the first book's twenty, despite the books being the exact same length.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice wrap up for the finale of the series.