History Creator / GordonKorman

Canadian author of HighSchool comedies, as well as adventure/thriller kid novels. His comedic novels include the Bruno & Boots/ Literature/MacdonaldHall series, ''Literature/NoMoreDeadDogs'', and ''The Toilet Paper Tigers.'' His adventure novel series include ''Everest'' and ''Literature/OnTheRun''. His first novel, ''This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall,'' was written and published when he was ''twelve years old.''

%%* OddCouple: in almost every one of his earlier works.

* SecondPlaceIsForLosers: ''The D- Poems of Jeremy Bloom: A Collection of Poems About School, Homework, and Life (Sort Of)'' the poem "The Olympian", in which Jeremy claims he's in training to become the greatest athlete of all time (though also admitting he stinks at every sport). Subverted in that while stating that he'll come in first in nearly everything, he freely admits that he'll gladly accept a bronze medal in boxing, having been knocked out by a three-year-old during practice.
* TaxmanTakesTheWinnings: During the RoadTripPlot ''No Coins Please,'' Artie Geller spends his road trip across the country engaging in half-a-dozen get rich schemes. One scheme involves bribing the employees closing a bankrupt factory to turn it into a disco for a night. Another is renting several cows and charging tourists a dollar a minute to milk them while egging them into competitions due to how little milk it's possible to get in a minute. The book ends with the FBI catching up to Artie and reciting a LongList of about forty things he's done wrong (not paying any taxes, not getting a license or health inspection for his milking business, using the factory without permission of its owners, selling liquor without a license, failing to pay utility bills etc.). They agree to drop the charges if Artie makes restitution, leaving him with a profit of just $2.96 from his combined hustles.
* ThisIsMySide: In ''The Toilet Paper Tigers'', the bratty older brother has laid tape down the middle of the room, and penalizes any (real or imagined) affront with moving the tape to shrink the younger brother's side.

* SameStoryDifferentNames: In addition to the Bruno and Boots books, Korman wrote several other "CrazyAwesome Guy and his OnlySaneMan best friend get up to CrazyEnoughToWork schemes" novels before eventually branching out, such as:

* SecondPlaceIsForLosers: ''The D- Poems of Jeremy Bloom: A Collection of Poems About School, Homework, and Life (Sort Of)'' includes a subversion in the form of the poem "The Olympian", in which Jeremy claims he's in training to become the greatest athlete of all time (though also admitting he stinks at every sport). The subversion comes in that while stating that he'll come in first in nearly everything, he freely admits that he'll gladly accept a bronze medal in boxing, having been knocked out by a three-year-old during practice.

* SameStoryDifferentNames: Gordon Korman made his name with ''[[Literature/MacdonaldHall This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall!]]'' featuring CrazyAwesome Bruno Walton and his OnlySaneMan roommate, Boots O'Neill. In addition to writing several sequels to the book, he also wrote several other "CrazyAwesome Guy and his OnlySaneMan best friend get up to CrazyEnoughToWork schemes" books before eventually branching out. Such as:

%%* HighSchoolAU: ''Jake Reinvented'' is this for ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby''.

* RedeemingReplacement: In ''Notorious'', [=ZeeBee's=] dog Barney was a somewhat dangerous dog that stole food from shoppers, chased bicyclists, destroyed fences and gardens and was genuinely mean to everyone but his owner, to the point where [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing people tend to be happy that be died]]. Her new dog, Barney Two isobedient, starved for affection, sweet to just about anyone and only is ever ositle to someone [[HeroicPet when his owner is in danger]], with everyone loving him except for [=ZeeBee=], who is still mourning her old dog and vies Barney Two with bored disdain until the end.

* MagnificentBastard: Mr. Knight in ''Our Man Weston'' is a spy hired to steal a plane, [[CloudcuckoolandersMinder who has to reign in the impulses of his idiotic accomplice and pilot]], figures out the various secrets and suspicions of the various characters even while the OnlySaneMan remains blind to most of them, refrains from doing anything with that information due to how far off base the amateur detectives suspicions are and because train to get him fired would draw attention to himself, and when he is plans are foiled in the climax [[spoiler: pulls off a cunning escape and then disguises a s a police officer to rescue his captured accomplice in order to make sure that he doesn't talk to the police, although it's implied the man will be recaptured due to his own stupidity once they part ways]].

* ''Literature/GodsPlay''

* AnAesop + TruthInTelevision: In ''Losing Joe's Place'', the narrator happens to help a hot girl with her college homework. Specifically, about food costs. Then he does the math after she leaves, and finds that it's actually [[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/is-junk-food-really-cheaper.html cheaper and healthier]] to cook one's food than to eat out all the time.

* CatchTwentyTwoDilemma: ''Ungifted'' has [[IJustWantToBeNormal Noah]] lament that the only way to get out of the gifted program would be an act of sheer genius, but that everyone displaying sheer genius gets sent ''to'' to the gifted program.

* DorkHorseCandidate: in ''Don't Care High'', two friends at the most boring, lackluster high school in the city, completely as a gag, select a random nobody student to promote as class president... and due to snowballing events he becomes an icon of cool to the entire student body, much to his bewilderment. The hitch of the story is, from beginning to end, the kid they pick is such a nondescript cipher that they never figure out anything at all about him. Not his real address, not his phone number, not his pastimes, they never see his home or his family, all his previous addresses and schools don't or no longer exist... they even go so far as to break into his confidential records and find literally nothing in it. And at the end of the story the kid simply disappears — "moved to another town" — and his forwarding address is nonexistent as well. A cipher from beginning to end.

* ObliviousToLove: Jason Cardone, from ''Losing Joe's Place'', doesn't notice Jessica's affections towards him until literally the very end.

* TakingTheHeat: In ''Ungifted'' Noah lets himself be blamed for helping Donovan cheat on a test, causing him to be expelled from the gifted program. He does this partially on order to protect the real culprit, [[spoiler: Abigail Lee]], but mostly just because he ''wants'' to be expelled and go to a normal school.

* CatchTwentyTwoDilemma: ''Ungifted'' has [[IJustWantToBeNormal Noah]] lament that the only way to get out of the gifted program would be an act of sheer genius, but that everyone displaying sheer genius gets sent ''to'' to the gifted program. %%* CrazyEnoughToWork

%%* BookDumb
%%* BullyHunter: Commando, in ''The Twinkie Squad.''
%%* CrazyEnoughToWork