Week Three: Boys & Books - Novel

 

Ungifted by Gordon Korman is a great book for anyone, specifically boys in grades 4-7. The main character is Donovan Curtis, a smart-aleck middle-schooler voted Most Likely to Wind Up in Jail. We meet him in detention for broadcasting over the PA system when he was in the office awaiting sentencing for a spitball war. Donovan’s two best friends, the Daniels, help him escape detention which leads to an epic event.

“I cocked back the (tree) branch and unloaded a home run swing. The impact vibrated up through my arms to my brain stem, and into every cell of my body. The branch shattered in my hands. I have to say that this was the best part of it for a guy like me—the split second the tomato hits the car; the very brief flight as I drop from the edge of the roof to the pool; the instant that the balloon lifts the toupee and the sun’s rays glint off that shiny bald head. Or in this case, the go-o-ong! Sound from the statue’s bronze behind. The payoff. It was usually downhill from there. Sometimes literally. … The big bronze globe careened down the hill toward the gym. … It pulverized the glass doors, sending up a blizzard of shards that obscured the entrance. I heard a very sharp whistle blast, like the referee was calling a foul on Atlas (the statue of the titan), or possibly me.”

Donovan gets caught in the act by the superintendent, Dr. Schultz, who takes him to his office where he writes Donovan’s name on a sticky note before he is interrupted by his secretary. The secretary tells Dr. Schultz that he is needed at the gym to meet with the fire department. Dr. Schultz sends Donovan on his way and says he will handle the situation tomorrow. Before Mr. Schultz can make it out of his office, he gets interrupted by his secretary again. She needs the list of the new candidates for the gifted program. He tells her, “It’s on my desk ... You can’t miss it.” And that’s how Donovan Curtis was sent to the Academy of Scholastic Distinction, a program for gifted and talented students. Will Donovan Curtis be able to play the part of a gifted student or his secret be found out?

Ungifted is a fabulous book about how you can be gifted in many different ways. I’ve only read this book in a book club with one of my high groups because it mentions sex education, and I believe maturity would be needed when continuously discussing the development of a baby throughout the book. If I recall correctly, it only uses that specific phrase once, so I just had them put their books down and I changed the wording to human growth and development. Books where characters are "troublemakers" are typically humor-filled and fun to share with students. Several boys can resonate with Donovan because they enjoy being pranksters. This book also mentions a robotic club, so it has a video-game aspect as well.

All books can be used in language arts and reading in some way or another. This book could be used in a science lesson; how to make the robot work, what robotics entails, and coding. This book has an SEL focus because you could emphasize how we are each exceptional in different ways. The book refers to each person's IQ, so you can find the mean, median, and mode of a list of given IQs. You could discuss Atlas, the Greek Titan in social studies too. As a reading teacher, I also love that this book has a sequel and each book is close to 300 pages, so students are working on stamina along with retention of a longer text. Supergifted has the same characters but focuses on Noah Youkilis, who has an IQ of 206 and tries desperately to be seen as normal.