Through a preposterous chain of events, that he set in motion, Donovan Curtis is sent to a middle school for the gifted. He clearly does not belong. The other students know it. The teachers know it. But Donovan bumbles along and actually contributes his social talents in a significant way to his classmates. The title refers to Donovan and each chapter heading is cleverly labeled with a variation of "un". Each chapter is from a point of view of one of the characters and the headings tell their names and their IQs. IQ is clearly just one part of who people are and how they are developing. This book would be a great jumping off point for discussing what is intelligence anyway? And how hard is it to be labeled "gifted"? "Ungifted"? Donovan's sister is living with his family while her husband serves in Afghanistan. She is pregnant and brings a dog into the home, too. They (Katie & Beatrice, dog) provide some very comical scenes in the book. A character named Noah who is at the academy with Donovan is off-the-charts brilliant but trying his best to be "normal" and get thrown out of the academy. He is hilarious and actually achieves his wish by the end of the book. Donovan is found lacking and returned to the regular middle school at the conclusion. The book provides very fun lessons in acceptance and how our school systems/society need examination and inclusion efforts.

This book is available in Infosoup: http://search.infosoup.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1887862?lang=eng

Did you know? Gordon Korman likes Asian food like Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, etc.