Ungifted

Gordon Korman is always hit or miss for me. This one is a hit. It's really funny and the characters are all different and interesting to boot.

Main character Donovan is the prankster type. As luck would have it, his best prank isn't even intentional. He hits the Atlas (character from [b: Atlas Shrugged|662|Atlas Shrugged|Ayn Rand|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1405868167s/662.jpg|817219]) statue with a stick and the globe flies off, crashes through the gym door and rolls onto the floor in the middle of a basketball game. The superintendent catches him, interrogates him and writes his name down. Having a personality similar to the principal on "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," he mistakenly writes it on the list of students going to the show more gifted school. The next thing Donovan knows, he's enrolled in the gifted program and MIA as far as the superintendent can tell.

At the gifted school the kids quickly figure out that Donovan is not gifted, at least in the way they are. What he has is a knack for finding solutions and helping his new peers improve their social skills. The lesson from this book is not original, but still nice to have reinforced now and then. "Don't judge a book by it's cover." Donovan finds out that the "nerds" are actually pretty cool. When his friends from the regular school trash talk the gifted kids, Donovan sticks up for them. Donovan joins the robotics club and makes sure that the school who always wins the competition is dethroned, but not in the way you think. I recommend this book for boys who don't like to read. show less

One of the [many] things that impresses me about Gordon Korman is how much credit he gives his audience. He writes these zany stories, but they have a lot of depth to them at the same time. And Ungifted is no exception.

The story follows a kid, Donnie, who accidentally gets transferred to a gifted school despite the fact that he is definitely not. The superintendent just wrote down Donnie's name on the wrong piece of paper. Whoops. Gifted.

Now Donnie has to manage his classes without anyone clueing in that he shouldn't be there. There's a robotics competition, an awkward school dance, and a whole host of... quirky classmates.

(Sidebar about characterization: I'm a little conflicted over the portrayal of Donnie's gifted classmates. They show more kind of feel like stereotypical nerds, but their competitiveness and social awkwardness also felt really... familiar. Maybe larger-than-life would be how I'd describe them? Honestly, they felt realistic, if a little exaggerated. The only character I didn't 100% believe was one of the adults, the superintendent, and that's only because he seemed to break character towards the end.)

Basically, this book is a madcap school adventure, a fun and funny read.

But there's also more to it than that. Because without getting too preachy or obvious about it, Gordon Korman explores some issues with the school system. He contrasts the environment the gifted kids get with the sad, underfunded, regular classrooms. He shows how being treated like you're smart and being given a more enriching environment changes how you learn. And he also gets into the tremendous amount of pressure that kids feel once they've been categorized as smart.

Basically, Ungifted was a fun book with some surprisingly deep educational themes and issues. This isn't the first book I've read of Korman's to address issues with school. And I think that's really cool, especially given that a lot of middle grade readers spend a huge portion of their lives in classrooms. It's nice to see Korman giving schools a nuanced treatment and exploring the educational issues that students -- gifted or not -- can encounter. show less

This book is Gordon Korman at his best. It's also not very old, so that gives me hope for his future books. I hate it when an author kind of slowly slides down in quality until you go from great books to reading mud, you know? But this is definitely not the case with Gordon Korman. He's at the top of his game in Ungifted, and I love it!

Donovan is not gifted. At all. He's average in every sense of the word - but he does get in trouble more than the average person. He has what could almost be some form of ADHD or something, where once he thinks of an idea he just has to try it - no matter the conseqences. So it's business like usual when Donovan grabs a stick and whacks it across the giant behind of a large metal statue of Atlas (the guy, show more not the map) holding up the world. When things get a little out of hand, however, is when the world literally falls out of Atlas' hands. The world portion of the statue falls off, rolls down the hill, and crashes into a mega-expensive sports building full of screaming sports fans. No one is hurt, but Donovan's in trouble.
But wait. Y'see, the superintendant of the school made a mistake. He wrote Donovan's name on the paper with kids who go to the special school for gifted kids down the road. That's right, Donovan didn't get expelled - he got promoted. He decides to stick it out with the geniuses to save his parents from footing the bill for the gym, and that's when he starts to realize that those geeks and nerds are very cool in their own way - they just need a little push in the right direction from someone who doesn't spend all his time stressing about grades or some new science concept. But this uneasy answer won't last forever, and Donovan knows it's only a matter of time before the super-intendant finds him.

This book is flat out hilarious. That's the first thing I'll say. Donovan is a hoot, and everyone around him, from the serious genius girl who can't think about anything but getting into a good college, to the freakishly smart boy who wishes he were normal and didn't have to go to the smart kid school (and so tries desperately to flunk, a running punch-line throughout the book) - and who discovers the secrets of YouTube and is suddenly addicted.
The book is told alternating views between classmates at the Academy (the gifted school), the teachers, the super-intendant, Donovan himself, and Donovan's also funny (and highly pregnant) sister. It is very cool reading how everyone thinks about Donovan and sees him, which is somehow very different from how he sees himself in certain ways.

There is a reference throughout the book to an ancestor who survived the sinking of the Titanic, which for me (a tried-and-true Titaniac) was kind of a cool little tie-in to actual history. Also, for those who don't know Gordon Korman's works, he also wrote the Titanic trilogy and I find he fits in little references to the Titanic in many of his books. Got half an hour to kill? Ask me a question about the Titanic. Or books that even use the word titanic (i.e. "He took a titanic leap"). I probably know a little too much on the subject than it is really possibly to classify under "passing interest."

Parents, don't worry that this book might be inappropriate for your children. Katie (Donovan's sister)'s husband is stationed over-seas in the military, and rather than being anything bad her pregnancy is more of a running gag and something that comes in very handy when the Academy students realize they haven't taken "sex ed" yet - what's better education in that area than studying an actual child in vitro? Nothing inappropriate, and it's actually extremely sweet.

This book is awesome, and I have given it as a gift to a friend who loves Wendy Mass books (who said she loves it). It is a great, great book and even if it might be a little tilted when it comes to what smart kids are like, so what? I'm a smart kid (though no Noah), and I don't mind. You come into the story knowing it's not really the way life is, and it's the story (not the "message") that is the reason you should read it.

This review is also on my blog, at http://ireadtilldawn.blogspot.com/2014/01/ungifted-by-gordon-korman-2012.html show less

The word gifted has never been applied to a kid like Donovan Curtis. It's usually more like Don't try this at home. So when the troublemaker pulls a major prank at his middle school, he thinks he's finally gone too far. But thanks to a mix-up by one of the administrators, instead of getting in trouble, Donovan is sent to the Academy of Scholastic Distinction (ASD), a special program for gifted and talented students.
It wasn't exactly what Donovan had intended, but there couldn't be a more perfect hideout for someone like him. That is, if he can manage to fool people whose IQs are above genius level. And that becomes harder and harder as the students and teachers of ASD grow to realize that Donovan may not be good at math or science (or show more just about anything). But after an ongoing experiment with a live human (sister), an unforgettably dramatic middle-school dance, and the most astonishing come-from-behind robot victory ever, Donovan shows that his gifts might be exactly what the ASD students never knew they needed. show less

Epic, hilarious, classic Korman! Donovan is the kid who gets an idea and just does or says whatever... immediately. Without thinking. He's been voted most likely to end up in jail, and has become a lifer in school detention. The afternoon his teacher sneaks off to watch the junior high championship game, Donovan's buddies bust him out of detention, and he ends up whacking the globe off the hilltop statue of Atlas holding up the world. Unfortunately, the giant bronze globe ends up demolishing the glass doors and front entrance of the gym, along with a sizeable portion of the gym floor, and terrifying the packed crowd at the game. After being nabbed by the superintendent himself, Donovan is sent home to await his expulsion papers.... and show more instead, there's a letter that arrives stating he has passed all of the exams and qualifications for the Academy of Scholastic Distinction, and his transfer is effective immediately. Donovan can barely put a decent paragraph together and is lucky if all of his grades are above C average (actually that usually means he's sitting next to someone a lot smarter than him or his buddies, the two Daniels). The Academy is an amazing high tech facility with incredibly smart kids and teachers, and the only way Donovan's going to be able to hide from the consequences of his massive bronze and glass mess is if he can manage to find a way to stay in the Academy. Turns out his only talent is xbox related, and it's the one talent missing in the school robotics team -- they can build it, program it, modify it... but none of them have the gamer instincts to drive it to the win, or the ability to see beyond the math and physics and engineering into the fun! Between that and Donovan offering his very pregnant sister up as the class "Human Growth and Development" project so that they don't have to take summer school for that subject, Donovan thinks it just might work. Add a raucous middle school dance, a phenomenally epic robotics competition takedown, and chapters from every different voice in the book, this is laugh out loud funny, with enough heart to keep you cheering for every single character. 6th grade and up. show less

When Donovan hit the Atlas statue with a tree branch, he really just meant it to make a loud, echoey clang. He had no way of knowing that the 400-pound-globe on Atlas's shoulders was held on with one single rusty bolt. Donovan didn't mean to send the ball careening down the hill, through the glass doors, and across the gym floor. So when a disciplinary screw-up sends him to the Academy for Scholastic Distinction, he didn't really mean for that to happen, either--but it's a great place to hide out for a while. It doesn't take long for anyone to figure out that Donovan doesn't belong with the geniuses at his new school--but Donovan does have some gifts the geniuses don't have. But it'll take more than joystick skills and a pregnant sister show more to keep him in the gifted school.

Really enjoyed this--sweet and sincere while still being goofy and funny. Donovan seems like a real 8th grader, with impulse-control issues and a prankster attitude. His immediate reaction to his new classmates is to see them all as huge, hopeless nerds, but he quickly comes to care about them, defending them against his thuggish old-school friends. He tries hard, and manages to be a really decent kid under all the mischief.

Definitely one to recommend to middle-schoolers; the brightly-colored robot cover should help it find an audience.

[Aside: as an adult reader, there are plenty of plot holes big enough to drive their robot through, and, like Schooled, Ungifted is plagued with similarly unrealistic expectations of what middle-schoolers are like. Still, it's charming and uplifting, as long as you don't think too hard about it.]

[Aside #2: I assume Korman doesn't have kids of his own, given the lack of fuss and drama made about a 4-hour labor, except to compare it against the 90-minute labor of a dog birthing 4 puppies, and say that the dog had it easy. A 4-hour labor is unusually speedy, though the book makes it appear that it took forever.] show less

Ungifted by Gordon Korman follows Donovan Curtis, a middle-school troublemaker whose latest prank accidentally causes major damage to school property. Through a clerical error, Donovan is mistakenly sent to the district’s elite Academy of Scholastic Distinction—a school for gifted students. Terrified he’ll be exposed, Donovan tries to blend in, but his humor, creativity, and impulsive ideas end up helping his new classmates more than anyone expects. As friendships grow, Donovan discovers that “gifted” means more than test scores.