Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen

Imagine a 12-year old “friendless-nerd” and an ex-convict-and-druggie. Other than the fact that they live in the same building, they only have one thing in common: their love of Scrabble. Hence starts the touching story of Ambrose the friendless-nerd and Cosmo, the scary druggie who is the terror of Ambrose’s mom, Irene. Through their love of Scrabble, Ambrose and Cosmo’s friendship is grown and nurtured at The West Side Scrabble Club. Here, Cosmo changes his ways, and meets a girlfriend, unbeknownst to Ambrose’s paranoid mother. All is going well, except for a couple of little problems: Cosmo’s girlfriend does not know about his past, and Irene does not know about Ambose’s present.