I liked this okay, but I found some of the gender roles and characters too stereotypical. I think Gordon Korman's writing is fun, and he really gets school-world, but I think he was just coasting with this book - the characters seemed more like sketches than real people. ( )

How does Donovan, trouble-on-two-feet, end up in the genius program? Better yet, how (and why) does he stay there? Very funny middle school book about a very gifted screw-up. ( )

This is definitely not one of Korman's stronger works. The basic plot outline is simple, almost too simple, and feels almost like it's pulled straight from No More Dead Dogs, while most of the students at the gifted school don't get defined beyond what their 'gift' is.

That being said, it was funny most of the way through, and the sub-plot with Donovan's sister was well-done. I feel like this book's faults were mostly just trying too hard in all the wrong places. Too much time is spent on a plot that's straight out of Korman's earlier novels, and not enough on unique characters and motivation.

Ungifted is a book that is assuredly better than a lot of books aimed at middle-school students and there's nothing overtly wrong with it. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to a younger reader who's mostly unfamiliar with Gordon Korman. On the other hand, this book never really breaks itself out of the mold and sets itself truly apart. It's biggest flaw is being merely average when it could have been something much, much better. ( )

Donovan's essential ungiftedness changes the shape of the Academy of Scholastic Distinction, and is the driving theme of this book. Ungifted is largely character-driven which is part of its charm.

Class learn sex ed/human growth and development

Donovan is the novel’s central character, its protagonist and one of its many narrators. He is in his mid-teens, comes from what might be described as a relatively average family and, as he himself understands, is driven by his impulses. Encouraged by his two best friends, Donovan says what he wants, does what he feels inclined to do in the moment he feels the inclination, and tends to do does both without a clear sense, or consideration, of potential consequences.

At first this aspect of Donovan seems to be primarily negative: the narrative is initiated, and almost entirely driven, by the results of Donovan’s ultimately destructive impulse to take a powerful swing (with a tree branch) at a statue outside his school. But while the narrative doesn’t necessarily, or directly, condone Donovan’s actions – or, for that matter, his tendency to act on impulse