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Summary
Summary
Sometimes brains aren't everything.
George R. Clark is gifted. Mentally, he's light-years ahead of his classmates. His parents worship him, and his teachers adore him. But socially, George is at the bottom of the curve. Most of his classmates avoid him--if he's lucky. Until the Bruise Brothers, the intellectually challenged members of the school football team, decide they want George to pass a test of their own design.
Only the fact that George's father is the school principal has saved him in the past. But his father isn't going on the eighth grade science field trip, and George has a feeling it's going to be open season on dorks. Suddenly thrown into a crash course on human nature, without his father to protect him, the most intellectually gifted kid in the eighth-grade might actually learn something before the end of the trip . . . if he survives it.
This witty novel provides a different perspective on bullying and the battle of brains versus brawn.
Author Notes
Beth Evangelista lives and writes in the Philadelphia area. Her favorite things in the world are reading, writing, watching submarine movies, eating Hershey bars, and being with her husband and three sons. Gifted is her first novel.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-George Clark would be the first to tell you that he is gifted. He is about the smartest eighth grader in his school and has science-fair ribbons to prove it. For someone so smart, though, his social skills leave much to be desired. Most of the time he is protected from bullies he annoys with his mouthiness since his father is the school principal. Now, however, he is going on a class trip without his dad. The journey to the camp is relatively uneventful; even the football team isn't picking on him for a change. George thinks that just maybe the guys are coming around. They talk him into the game of smearing mustard all over the teacher chaperone; however, George gets set up big time and has to do chores for punishment. To retaliate, he locks the "Bruise Brothers" in an unused bunker-then he's glad to be around the teachers. The story takes a hard-to-believe turn when the campers must evacuate due to a hurricane warning, the abruptness of which, in light of recent events, stretches the imagination a bit. No one knew about the storm before the trip? In the chaos of leaving, George is attacked and left behind. He finds shelter and, in the storm, finds one of his tormentors severely injured. George helps him and, in the process, has a change in attitude. No longer lonely and dorky, he tutors the football team and runs track. Overall, the story is a light read with an obvious moral.-Diana Pierce, Running Brushy Middle School, Cedar Park, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
George Clark, a mentally gifted, arrogant, and socially inept eighth-grader, is dreading the class camping trip and the bullying he will inevitably have to endure. But instead, George makes some unexpected connections and realizes that even a brain like him can have a lot to learn about human nature. Positive and humorous, this debut novel subtly explores bullying and friendship. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A spoiled brainiac learns to appreciate others in this mildly entertaining but not particularly convincing first effort. George is the principal's son. He's also small, pale and extremely near-sighted. Until now, George has managed to escape the worst of the bullying handed out by his huskier classmates. But a weeklong field trip at the shore offers plenty of opportunities for trouble. From a painful game of touch football to the punishment meted out for a prank played on their chaperone, nothing goes right for George. Things go spectacularly wrong, however, when a hurricane hits and he's inadvertently left behind when the group evacuates. George manages to survive and even saves one of his erstwhile enemies. Unfortunately, the action comes late and George's unpleasant personality has been so clearly drawn that his conversion to caring friend isn't entirely believable. Still, some readers may enjoy George's amusingly self-centered narration enough to reach, and appreciate, the positive ending. Like George himself, this unlikely adventure has its flaws, but it's not without a quirky charm. (Fiction. 10-14) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 5-8. Everybody knows a kid like George R. Clark--a gifted student, and well aware of it. Obnoxious. Pompous. It's hard to write a successful book with an unlikable protagonist (especially when it is narrated in his voice), but that's what first-time author Evangelista has done. When his father (the school principal) insists that he go on the eighth-grade camping trip, George worries that his tormenters, known collectively as the Bruise Brothers, will corner him, and he'll have only his best friend, Anita, to protect him. Yet at first Worm (George's nickname) seems to have turned lucky. Do the Bruise Brothers want to be his friends? Well, no. Their kindness is a ruse to make George responsible for a joke that infuriates one of the teacher-chaperones. George determines to fight back, but he has few resources. It takes a hurricane for him to understand who he is, why people loathe him, and what to do about it. Evangelista avoids pitfalls throughout; the characters could easily have been stereotypes, and the hurricane a deus ex machina . The bullies are of a piece, but George's teacher--with whom he unexpectedly bonds and with whom he shares more than a few characteristics--is exceptionally multilayered. And because George is such an individual, other characters seem real juxtaposed against him. Because the description of the hurricane is so carefully crafted, it never seems a canned event; consequently, George's turnaround is believable. Fresh and funny. --Ilene Cooper Copyright 2005 Booklist