Ungifted

Ungifted is a 2012 novel for children written by Gordon Korman and is the recipient of the 2014 Red Cedar Award. Narrated from multiple perspectives, the story follows Donovan Curtis, an average student at Hardcastle Middle School who is accidentally sent to an academy for gifted kids. It chronicles the characters’ growth and change as they learn to balance intellectual achievement with experience and social engagement.

Donovan is a prankster who struggles to control his impulses. One day, he feels moved to whack a statue of Atlas on his campus. The force of the blow, combined with a flaw in the statue’s design, result in the globe separating from Atlas’s shoulders, rolling down a hill, and crashing into the school’s crowded gymnasium. School superintendent Dr. Shultz, who is on campus at the time, attending a basketball game, catches Donovan and writes his name on a slip of paper. Thinking that paper is a list of students for the gifted academy, his secretary submits Donovan’s name, and he is transferred. Though he knows he is not gifted, Donovan vows not to squander his lucky escape from Dr. Shultz by doing everything he can to fit in.