The Not So Boring Letters of Private Nobody

Oliver is obsessed with the Civil War.  He knows everything there is to know about battles, generals, and timelines.  It's like he's been preparing his entire life for the Civil War project in social studies, but thing quickly take a turn. 

First, he has to work with a partner which is bad enough, but his teacher assigns him to work with Ella Berry, a slacker with tangled hair who's failing every class.  Even worse, their randomly selected person isn't a general; it's some guy named Raymond Stone.  A quick search reveals he died of dysentery before the Battle of Gettysburg.  Basically, he diarrhead himself to death and never even fought in one battle. 

Also, Ella rejects his presentation idea in favor of a documentary which neither of them knows how to make.  This is a disaster. 

Enter Kevin, Oliver's lunch companion and the closest thing he has to a friend.  Kevin is obsessed with writing stories, and they convince his English teacher to let him work on the project with them for her class, too. 

It turns out, Kevin is more fun than Oliver thought, and Ella definitely isn't what he thought.  She's actually smart and kind of pretty, and she thinks his Civil War reenacting hobby is cool.  Could it be he's found his first real friends and maybe even a girlfriend while researching Private Nobody?

Matthew Landis's book is a fun and informative read about finding friendship and breaking down the walls we build to protect ourselves.  It's full of humor and self-realization.  Recommended.