Ungifted is a Children's novel by Gordon Korman.
Donovan Curtis is the resident Class Clown of his school. He sees himself as being good at pranks... and not much else. One day, after some goading from his friends, Donovan smacks the school's Atlas statue with a stick, causing the planet Atlas is holding to roll out of its arms and down the hill... into the school gymnasium... while a basketball game is going on.
The district superintendent, Dr. Schultz, was present at the game, and caught Donovan red-handed. Donovan knows it's pretty much the end for him.
And then he finds himself sent to the Academy for Scholastic Distinction (ASD).
Yeah, while writing down Donovan's name, Dr. Schultz didn't check the papers he was writing it on. As a result, Donovan is now in a school for really smart kids, rather then getting whatever punishment his actions would have wrought. He ends up joining the robotics class, which is currently building their latest bot for a competition that robotics classes always hold.
The book was released on February 18th, 2012. It now has a sequel, Supergifted.
Ungifted contains examples of:
- Ascended Extra: Donovan's brother in-law is a cameo character in the first book but a bigger one in the sequel.
- Catch-22 Dilemma: Noah laments 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.
- Closer to Earth: Chloe, compared to the other kids. Her head is going on a mile a minute but she has the best social skills of the group.
- The Dividual: The Daniels, they even have a joint first person POV section in one scene.
- Failed a Spot Check: The gifted academic missed the required Sex Ed class when making their curriculum and the kids are in danger of having to do summer school as a result until Donovan volunteers having them watch his sister's pregnancy.
- For Want Of A Nail: Quite literally, as the statue was only being held up by one bolt.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Noah. He wants to return to normal school so that he can have a normal life. He's actually tried to sabotage his grades by deliberately writing down all the wrong answers on his tests, but it doesn't work on the grounds that, for him to know all the wrong answers, it means he knew which answers to avoid. He finally gets it when he takes the rap for one of his classmate's actions. He ends up going to Donovan's school.
- Jerkass to One: Abigail isn't exactly warm and friendly to everyone else, but Donovan is the only person she's actively demeaning or nasty towards due to (correctly) feeling that he doesn't belong in the program and finding him embarrassing and distracting for the others work. She still cheats on a test to keep Donovan in the program though, mainly out of gratitude for his sister saving her from summer school -and how that would look on her college application- and to keep his sister from leaving if he went.
- Smart People Build Robots: The Academy for Scholastic Distinction has a robotics class, which Donovan had become a part of.
- Switching P.O.V.: Over the course of the book, the P.O.V.s switch between multiple characters. From Donovan's, to Chloe's to the Daniels', to Dr. Schultz's, to Noah's, etc.
- Taking the Heat: 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, Abigail Lee, but mostly just because he wants to be expelled and go to a normal school.
- Those Two Girls: Heather and Deirdre, the Daniels' potential girlfriends.
- Verbed Title
