Ungifted by Gordan Korman
Humor; 280 pages
Due to an administrative mix-up, troublemaker Donovan Curtis is sent to the Academy of Scholastic Distinction, a special program for gifted and talented students, after pulling a major prank at middle school.
Sam’s review:
In Ungifted, Gordan Korman shows with humor and insight that labels can become self-fulfilling prophecies and that sometimes administrators and teachers have more to learn than their students.
Donovan Curtis, supreme prankster of Hardcastle Middle School, does not control his impulses. When the school’s statue of Atlas catches his attention, he does not hesitate before grabbing a fallen tree branch and whacking the statue hard on the posterior. Just as Donovan is enjoying the payoff of the “g-o-o-ng” sound from the vibration of the hollow metal body, the bolt holding the globe on the shoulders of Atlas snaps. The giant globe, out of Donovan’s control, rolls downhill and crashes into the glass doors of the gymnasium, bringing an important basketball game to a loud, chaotic end.
Unfortunately for Donovan, the superintendent of the school district was attending the game and catches Donovan in the full flush of his guilt. Donovan braces for expulsion. Instead, his family is ecstatically proud when he receives an invitation, signed by the superintendent, for Donovan to attend the Academy of Scholastic Distinction, the district’s elite school for gifted students.
Korman effectively uses seven first person narrators to move the story forward in a way that undercuts stereotypes with clever and satisfying surprises. Though Ungifted is mainly Donovan’s story, the other narrators also make significant realizations amidst the hilarious plot twists.
For readers looking for a fun book with good potential as a read-aloud, Ungifted is a good bet.