Ungifted

Last updated
Ungifted
Official Cover Art of Ungifted by Gordon Korman.jpg
Ungifted cover
Author Gordon Korman
Cover artistJonny Duddle
Country United States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Children's fiction
Publisher HarperCollins, Balzer + Bray
Publication date
18 February 2012
Media type Paperback, Hardcover, Audiobook
Pages280
ISBN 978-0-06-174267-5
Followed bySupergifted 

Ungifted is a 2012 children's novel by Gordon Korman, which contains 31 chapters and 280 pages. The story is told with chapters of alternating perspectives. The plot revolves around Donovan Curtis, a troublemaker who gets wrapped up in a major prank gone wrong. Due to an accident caused by the superintendent, Donovan gets sent to the Academy of Scholastic Distinction (ASD), a school for gifted and talented students. The rest of the novel is spent on Donovan avoiding being caught while helping the students of ASD through his own special gifts. Donovan avoids getting caught by driving the class robot (shown on cover) providing a teacher ( his pregnant sister Katie) for Human Growth and Development class of which the students of ASD lack to prevent them from summer school.

Contents

A sequel, Supergifted, was released January 2, 2018 A television series adaptation is currently in the works and will air on Nickelodeon. [1]

Plot

Donovan Curtis considers himself ungifted (the opposite of gifted), instead being a prankster and troublemaker. One day, one of his pranks goes too far when he strikes a statue which disrupts an ongoing basketball game. Although no one is injured, the gym is destroyed, with repairs for the damage that was done to the gym being prohibitively expensive. The district superintendent, Dr. Schultz, who was at the game, catches Donovan red-handed. However, after he jots down Donovan's name, he accidentally adds it to a list of candidates for the Academy for Scholastic Distinction (ASD), a school for extremely gifted students.

Donovan expects the mishap and his escape from punishment will eventually be discovered and feels that he will cause more stress to his already stressed household. His older sister, Katie, is currently staying with them and is seven months pregnant. Katie's husband Brad is a Marine who is deployed in Afghanistan. Adding to the pressure, Katie's mother-in-law leaves Brad's dog, Beatrice, who seems to be ill (but was later revealed to be pregnant) and only takes a liking to Donovan. However, after Donovan learns of the error that is sending him to ASD, he is filled with joy by the mistake.

On his first day, Donovan meets his classmates, and while some seem to be annoyed by him (in particular, a girl named Abigail Lee) some take a liking to him, especially Chloe, a girl interested in normal things. While Donovan continues to hide in the academy, his teachers wonder if he really is gifted. Donovan joins Robotics, a class taught by his homeroom teacher Mr. Osborne ("Mr. Oz"), who are preparing for a robotics tournament. Donovan helps give their robot a name: Tin Man Metallica SquarePants. Donovan introduces his classmate Noah Youkilis, a skinny boy with a high IQ (206), to YouTube which proves to be addictive to Noah. Donovan also impresses his classmates by showing his talent controlling the robot with a joystick.

Eventually, Donovan learns his classmates will have to go to summer school for failing to take Human Growth and Development. To help them, he convinces his sister to teach his classmates, which eventually gets approved. Later, during a school dance at the academy, Donovan's Hardcastle friends, the two Daniels (Daniel Sanderson and Daniel Nussbaum), steal the robot. However, one of the perpetrators is thrashed by Noah, who had learned of professional wrestling via YouTube.

A little bit later, Donovan is told to go to the library to take a test, to which he feels nervous because if he fails it he could be kicked out. However, while taking the test, Donovan discovers that someone had hacked the computer and was taking the test for him. For this Ms. Bevelaqua interviews Donovan's classmates about the test. While interviewing Noah Youkilis she says that they could get expelled for cheating on the test, to Noah’s happiness as he doesn’t like being at ASD and would prefer to be at a normal school.

Later, as the team prepares for the robotics tournament, Dr. Schultz finds a video from Noah's YouTube channel "Youkilicious" and recognizes Donovan as the boy who destroyed the gym. He goes to Academy to Donovan's classroom and tells him that he's been expelled. Back at Hardcastle, Donovan begins to feel depressed and filled with guilt. Meanwhile, Chloe feels distraught and skips school to try and find him. There, she runs in the Daniels, whom she manages to convince to find Donovan and bring him to the tournament.

Later, on the day of the tournament, Donovan is taken out of school by the Daniels and Katie. There, he watches the ASD control Tin Man, though he doesn’t participate until Cold Spring Harbor (one of the opponent schools) attempts to cheat by shoving Tin Man with their robot. Angry, Donovan runs down to the ASD and takes over control, using Tin Man to assault Cold Spring Harbor’s robot, with Noah using a chair to crash down. In the chaos, Katie suddenly becomes pregnant.

Later at the hospital, Dr. Schultz reveals that ASD and Cold Spring had been disqualified, with a different school taking the trophy. However, ASD's team doesn’t care; they are more overjoyed over Cold Spring Harbor’s defeat. Katie’s baby is revealed to be a girl, overjoying Noah as he had predicted the baby would be male and is happy to be wrong for once. Schultz also counts the hospital visit as Human Growth and Development hours, saving the ASD class from summer school.

Soon, Donovan is surprised to see Noah at Hardcastle, and is shocked to hear that Noah took the blame for hacking his test and was expelled; the true culprit was Abigail Lee, who did it out of gratitude.

Noah and Donovan continue to take the ASD robotics class after school, working on a new robot they call “Heavy Metal”. The book ends with Donovan reflecting over the whole experience, saying that people who attended the tournament might question who caused the ASD robot’s rampage, adding that he’ll always know that it was him and “you don’t have to be gifted to know that”.

Characters

Awards and achievements

Reception

Ungifted has received positive reviews from School Library Journal, Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA), ALA Booklist, the National Post, Publishers Weekly, New York Times Book Review, the Horn Book Guide, Children's Literature, Junior Library Guild, and Kirkus Reviews. School Library Journal described the story as "unpretentious and universally appealing". [3] Booklist labelled the conclusion as "satisfying". [4] New York Times wrote that the novel is "brisk, heartfelt and timely". Children's Literature described the story as "unique" and the novel as "easily read", "nice" and "safe". Children's Lit also recommended it for "middle school students who don't feel they belong" and as an "ideal selection for classroom study" with "well-developed" characters and "many layers of 'drama'". Voice Of Young Advocates praised the novel by describing Ungifted as "humorous", "quirky", and "feel-good". The novel was also praised as "a gem for readers looking for a story", and the plot as "touching, without being overly sentimental". VOYA recommended Ungifted for "middle school readers who are looking for a funny and quick read".

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References

  1. ↑ "Rashaana Shah: An Asian Entrepreneur Set to Carve Her Space in Hollywood". itnewsonline.com (Press release). Membai, India: PR Newswire. March 1, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021. Mulberry is also the co-executive producer on the television show Ungifted, based on the children's novel by Gordon Korman. The project was picked up by Nickelodeon in 2020 prior to the pandemic, and should get into production soon.
  2. ↑ "Scholastic: Ungifted". scholastic.ca. Scholastic Canada Ltd. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "Bookverdict: Ungifted by john fisher". bookverdict.com. Media Source Book Verdict. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  4. ↑ "Booklist review: Ungifted". Booklist Publications. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
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