Evil Genius

Eighth grade student Oliver Watson is not the least popular kid in school, but he's close. He's pudgy, socially awkward, and never knows what's going on in his classes. He is insulted and abused on a regular basis by his classmates, derided by his teachers, and pitied by his parents. He is also the third wealthiest person in the world. You should fear him.

I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President, by Josh Lieb, tells the story Oliver's campaign for the presidency of the eighth grade class. Despite his apparent bumbling idiocy, Oliver is a world power. Having realized at the ripe old age of infancy that he was smarter than his parents, he decided to play dumb. His mother had married with nothing but her looks to offer, and they were long gone; she "would be terrified by my brain." His Daddy wanted nothing more than to produce "something amazing," something that would "change the world." But Oliver was already put off by Daddy's misplaced arrogance and "wasn't going to let him warm his frigid little heart by the hot flames of my genius."

When the time was right, Oliver stole $50 from his mother and invested it well. Quickly, he became a world power, with personal assistants, secret operatives, hidden rooms, bat caves full of technological devices, and off shore oil rights. I'm not sure how accurate that list is, but you get the gist. Oliver=hidden power + hidden money. The one thing Oliver craves, despite his disdain, is the love and respect of his father, who wants in return, a "normal" son. When the student council elections are announced, Oliver realizes the only way to get through to Daddy is to become president, just like Daddy used to be. Oliver plans to use his power and money to win the election; his attempts to bribe the principal, manipulate his English teacher through hidden messages in his cigarettes, and unseat the most popular kids in the school are laugh-out-loud funny. His soft, round, and stupid mother inadvertently becomes the manager of his rag tag campaign, and their attempts to help him out by controlling his campaign come close to undoing all his behind-the-scenes work.

No spoilers here, but Oliver discovers that even genius, money, and power are vulnerable to variables beyond their control. As the bombers circle overhead, he struggles to hang on to his empire while finding a way to build a relationship with his parents.

There is a lot about this book that I love. Oliver is a perfect evil genius; his haughty arrogance and intellectual brilliance combined with the simple need for parental love made me want to bring him home and feed him grilled cheese sandwiches. Josh Lieb paints the adults and other students in Oliver's life in such tedious, mediocre, boring, fatuousness that I felt they deserved to be manipulated by him. I felt that the ending was a little too tidy, but with Oliver's wealth, maybe it WOULD be. This is a great read for a kid who has a healthy intolerance for foolishness and appreciation for the underdog. Even though Oliver is an eighth grade character, this is not an easy read; his character's vocabulary and experiences are well beyond those of the average eighth grader. Lieb's use of pictures, footnotes, paragraphing, and varied kinds of dialogue help to break up the story and keep the reader's interest.

Pick it up now; you know you want to. Besides, how else will you find out who is the next eighth grade president?