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Ungifted
Ungifted
Ungifted
Ebook232 pages3 hours

Ungifted

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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About this ebook

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Gordon Korman comes a hilarious and heartfelt novel in which one middle-school troublemaker accidentally moves into the gifted and talented program—and changes everything. 

For fans of Louis Sachar and Jack Gantos, this funny and touching underdog story is a lovable and goofy adventure with robot fights, middle-school dances, live experiments, and statue-toppling pranks!

When Donovan Curtis pulls a major prank at his middle school, he thinks he’s finally gone too far. But thanks to a mix-up by one of the administrators, instead of getting in trouble, Donovan is sent to the Academy of Scholastic Distinction, a special program for gifted and talented students.

Although it wasn’t exactly what Donovan had intended, the ASD couldn’t be a more perfectly unexpected hideout for someone like him. But as the students and teachers of ASD grow to realize that Donovan may not be good at math or science (or just about anything), he shows that his gifts may be exactly what the ASD students never knew they needed.

Don't miss the sequel to this word-of-mouth hit: Supergifted! This funny and heartwarming sequel to Ungifted cleverly sends up our preconceived ideas about intelligence, heroism, and popularity.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateAug 21, 2012
ISBN9780062218605
Author

Gordon Korman

Gordon Korman published his first book at age fourteen and since then has written more than one hundred middle grade and teen novels. Favorites include the New York Times bestselling Ungifted, Supergifted, The Superteacher Project, The Unteachables, Pop, Notorious, Unplugged, Operation Do-Over, Slugfest, and the Masterminds series. Gordon lives with his family on Long Island, New York. You can visit him online at gordonkorman.com.

Read more from Gordon Korman

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Reviews for Ungifted

Rating: 4.038062242906574 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5

    This and other reviews can be found on Reading Between Classes

    Cover Impressions: The cover is super cute. The colors are great and the image of the robot is fun. I can see where this would appeal to kids.

    The Gist: Donovan Curtis doesn't know why he does the things that he does. He just gets an itch and before he knows it, he is in a world of trouble. When his biggest mistake yet inadverntantly leads to a mix up that gets him labeled as "Gifted", Donovan is thrust into a world of the super-smart and the super-geeky. As he struggles to fly under the radar, he becomes more involved than he ever thought he would and starts to see the Academy Geeks in a whole new light.

    Review:

    Ungifted is a well-written middle grade novel. It is a fun, light story that is perfect for young readers and easy enough for reluctant readers. The plot progresses steadily and has some very light hearted moments. I enjoyed watching Donovan as realized that the gifted kids were fun and interesting and that they were his true friends. Some of his actions left Donnie a little unlikeable, but he did manage to grow by the end of the novel.

    The other characters are cute, if a little stereotypical. I enjoyed Noah the most and was amused by his constant yearning to be expelled from the Academy. Chloe was also a cute character, but I felt the romantic element a little unnecessary and distracting.

    I wasn't a big fan of the alternating narrative. Perhaps if it had been less random and had a little more development among fewer characters, I would have enjoyed it more. I also noticed an odd undercurrent of public school bashing. Admittedly, as a Canadian, I am not fluent in the issues plaguing the American school system, however, as a teacher, I felt a little insulted. We do the best we can with what we are given and I felt that the author wasn't giving that process credit.

    I can see this book appealing to boys (as most of Gordon Korman's books do) and being an enjoyable read for those reluctant readers.

    Teaching/Parental Notes:

    Age: 10 and up
    Gender: Both
    Sex: None
    Violence: Bullying
    Inappropriate Language: None
    Substance Use/Abuse: None
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Korman's dive into middle school robotics skates by some flaws to deliver a mildly heart-warming story about a trouble-maker named Donnie who turns the definition of "gifted" on its head. After a prank gone wrong, Donnie is inadvertently enrolled in the Academy for Scholastic Distinction, a school for intelligently gifted children of the district. The teachers and students all know that Donnie is not traditionally gifted, but the case is made in nearly every chapter that Donnie is socially gifted. However, few teachers fail to recognize Donnie's giftedness and appear to be out to "get" him, a failure on Korman's part to portray today's schoolteachers in a positive and encouraging light.Ungifted is fascinating in its discussions about robotics; it is indeed an entirely competitive world of its own, and the ending could have done with more description about the culminating competition. While Korman's handling of the ending is unsettling and unsatisfactory, at best, readers can be assured that overall Ungifted is a book that one can recommend with no reservations to a middle school student. Korman writes about bullying, fitting in, and the pressures of adolescence without resorting to unsavory elements like so many other novels.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Human error winds up sending a trouble-making boy to a gifted school where he brings an element of "normal" to the collection of geniuses he meets. My first thought was that I'd seen this plot done in an episode of The Simpsons, but this time, the wayward student is determined to make it work. It's hard for me to put my finger on my feelings for this book. It feels like the reader is floating along with Donovan as he navigates circumstances as they arrive. At times the book is serious, funny, or somewhat outrageous, and Noah has landed on my list of favourite literary characters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was engaging but sometimes I felt like already knew what was going to happen. Like when Donovan was in trouble because he had knocked over the statue , he was switch to a gifted class( made for smart peoples)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Donovan Curtis earns placement into the gifted program through a careless administrative mistake, resulting from his too-frequent prankster activities. At first, differences in IQ scores and ideas about "fun" separate him from his new schoolmates, but as the students work together on a team project, they begin to see past their initial judgments and learn to appreciate the talents of others.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Gordon Korman is always a reliable hit with elementary students, and this title is no different. Ungifted will appeal to boys especially, as it focuses on a student whom some might consider a "loser," who is able to succeed even though he at first seems to be completely out of his depth. With well-drawn characters and enough development to make it more than just a school romp, this is a great addition to any school library.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This books is about a boy named Donovan who throws a stick at the globe on his school's atlas statue. The globe rolls down the hill and break his school gym. The principal talks to Donovan and writes his name on a slip of paper. When Donovan gets home there is a letter in the mail. It says he got into the gifted program. It turns out the principal wrote his name on the gifted list by mistake. How will Donovan make it in the gifted program? You have to read the book to find out. I liked the book because it had a lot of cliffhangers and humor. I enjoyed reading about all the adventures Donovan has. The lesson in this book is to never give up. I recommend this book to people who like books that show different perspectives. I also recommend it to middle schoolers because they can relate to Donovan who is a 7th grader.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Summary: The book starts out when middle school troublemaker Donovan Curtis pulls his biggest prank yet, and finally thinks he has gone to far. However, instead of getting expelled, Donovan is sent to the Academy of Scholastic Distinction, or ASD. He thinks he is safe until he realizes he doesn't possess the gifts that any of the other student have. After failing all his classes, the teachers and students alike begin to become suspicious. Donovan thinks he is done for until he enters the Robotics Tournament. Before urnament, his realizes that they do need his talents as well as their own the win.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    LOVED IT A LOT AND IT WAS SO AMAZING TO READ IT
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I haven't read it yet - is it that good? It has high ratings!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The story is very touching, because of the schoolmates. I thought first the story was kind of embarrassing (I kind of don't know the right word for it), but it turns out very nice and smooth.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Like everyone else in the book, I grew to love Donovan. He reminds me of someone you can't help but to love because of his spirit and ability to get away with just about anything because he's just lucky.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Such a good book for 8 to 12 years old.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing book and storyline; If you have some great like this one, you can publish it on Novel Star, just submit your story to hardy@novelstar.top or joye@novelstar.top
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A little bit simplistic - it covers so many characters, issues, and themes in a quick read. And a little implausible - for example, my complaint when I was a teacher in the Midwest was that so much money was spent on the children with disabilities that the gifted kids didn't get any real support. But there's plenty of money for the gifted kids here...

    But still, a fun & sensitive read for upper MG/ lower YA and for the adults who love them, no matter where their talents lie.

    PS. The students at the Academy were stereo-typically nerdy and focused, but I got the sense that Korman is saying that had to do with the community & the school district. They haven't been given permission to find out if they can also be creative, or to explore YouTube, or to kick back at all. Witness Chloe's passion for a school dance, or Noah's attempts to 'fail' out of the gifted program. Witness the entrance requirements for the Academy, that focus so much on the score of an IQ test, and not on grades or teacher recommendations or extra-curr. projects.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Très bien écrit, avec beaucoup d'humour, même pour un adulte.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a nice book for the most part it's also pretty funny
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Donovan Curtis's very average 8th grade life takes a sudden drastic turn when he good-naturedly wacks a statue at the top of a hill overlooking the middle school gymnasium with a branch, seting off a chain of events. The gym's glass entrance and wooden floor are trashed and Donovan's is mistakenly and miraculously sent to the School of Academic Distinction instead of serving a sentence for massive vandalism. Although he doesn't understand anything taught at the school, Donovan does contribute something all the gifted students do not have- a touch of normalcy, as well great driving for the Robotix team's robot and even an answer to their summer school dilemma. Chapters are written by different people and keep the dialogue interesting as Donovan hides out at the gifted school and endears himself to the group. An excellent read for the reluctant reader and one that boys will especially enjoy. 280 pages and appropriate for grades 5-8.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Korman at his best in this very funny book for middle schoolers. 2014 SSYRA
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Gordon Korman tends to be safe bet for a good tween book, and this book is no exception.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Korman always finds the unusual to write about in his middle school novels. Donvan, who always finds himself on the wrong end of trouble, suddenly finds himself in the school for the gifted. Now, obviously this is a BIG mistake, there's no way he gifted! But as he makes friends with the nerds in the school robotics program, they discover giftedness he never considered. They are so academic, and he introduces them to new ways of thinking, including You Tube. When the mistaken placement is discovered, just as the robotics team is about to win the championship, Donovan is sent back to regular school. And to his surprise, he missed the gifted program. And they really miss him.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    One of the [many] things that impresses me about Gordon Korman is how much credit he gives his audience. He writes these zany stories, but they have a lot of depth to them at the same time. And Ungifted is no exception.

    The story follows a kid, Donnie, who accidentally gets transferred to a gifted school despite the fact that he is definitely not. The superintendent just wrote down Donnie's name on the wrong piece of paper. Whoops. Gifted.

    Now Donnie has to manage his classes without anyone clueing in that he shouldn't be there. There's a robotics competition, an awkward school dance, and a whole host of... quirky classmates.

    (Sidebar about characterization: I'm a little conflicted over the portrayal of Donnie's gifted classmates. They kind of feel like stereotypical nerds, but their competitiveness and social awkwardness also felt really... familiar. Maybe larger-than-life would be how I'd describe them? Honestly, they felt realistic, if a little exaggerated. The only character I didn't 100% believe was one of the adults, the superintendent, and that's only because he seemed to break character towards the end.)

    Basically, this book is a madcap school adventure, a fun and funny read.

    But there's also more to it than that. Because without getting too preachy or obvious about it, Gordon Korman explores some issues with the school system. He contrasts the environment the gifted kids get with the sad, underfunded, regular classrooms. He shows how being treated like you're smart and being given a more enriching environment changes how you learn. And he also gets into the tremendous amount of pressure that kids feel once they've been categorized as smart.

    Basically, Ungifted was a fun book with some surprisingly deep educational themes and issues. This isn't the first book I've read of Korman's to address issues with school. And I think that's really cool, especially given that a lot of middle grade readers spend a huge portion of their lives in classrooms. It's nice to see Korman giving schools a nuanced treatment and exploring the educational issues that students -- gifted or not -- can encounter.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Donovan Curtis is a kid that acts without thinking and is used to paying the consequences for his actions when they catch up to him. This time the result of the action was very unexpected and very BAD. When he manages to break a statue and send “the world” crashing through the glass doors and into the gym during a game he is hauled to the superintendents office where his name is taken to be dealt with later... But, the name is picked up with the list of GT kids that are being transferred to the GT school so he is sent with them as the superintendent cannot remember his name.At the GT school he is placed in the robotics club as they are all in his homeroom. Here he meets typical GT kids that stress over everything or go to the other extreme and want to prove they don’t know so they can be treated like “normal” kids.He helps solve a scheduling problem that would have caused the GT kids to take summer school which helps him get on the good side of some of the classmates, but even though he is trying harder than he had ever tried in his life is not passing classes with acceptable grades.He eventually gets caught after somebody hacks the computer to “retake” the GT test for him - somehow they don’t realize there aren’t test scores to begin with as he never took a test to get to the GT school. The student who wants to fail and be “normal” takes the blame for hacking the computer though he didn’t do it so he WOULD be kicked out of the GT school.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Donovan Curtis gets into trouble and lands in the superintendent's office who put his name on a list...the wrong list. Donovan is an average student and a trouble maker, but ends up with his name on the list of kids to transfer to the Academy of Scholastic Distinction for gifted kids.Imagine being tossed into a school with a bunch of super smart kids. As you would guess he runs into trouble academically and with the class project of building a robot for the statewide competitiion. He fails at everything they put before him until they find out he is a wizard with the joystick.Donovan changes the school, but not as you would guess. The school changes Donovan, but not as you would guess.I've discovered the New York Times best-selling author Gordon Korman and feel like I've been given a present. He's written not only this book, but over seventy other books.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When Donovan hit the Atlas statue with a tree branch, he really just meant it to make a loud, echoey clang. He had no way of knowing that the 400-pound-globe on Atlas's shoulders was held on with one single rusty bolt. Donovan didn't mean to send the ball careening down the hill, through the glass doors, and across the gym floor. So when a disciplinary screw-up sends him to the Academy for Scholastic Distinction, he didn't really mean for that to happen, either--but it's a great place to hide out for a while. It doesn't take long for anyone to figure out that Donovan doesn't belong with the geniuses at his new school--but Donovan does have some gifts the geniuses don't have. But it'll take more than joystick skills and a pregnant sister to keep him in the gifted school.

    Really enjoyed this--sweet and sincere while still being goofy and funny. Donovan seems like a real 8th grader, with impulse-control issues and a prankster attitude. His immediate reaction to his new classmates is to see them all as huge, hopeless nerds, but he quickly comes to care about them, defending them against his thuggish old-school friends. He tries hard, and manages to be a really decent kid under all the mischief.

    Definitely one to recommend to middle-schoolers; the brightly-colored robot cover should help it find an audience.

    [Aside: as an adult reader, there are plenty of plot holes big enough to drive their robot through, and, like Schooled, Ungifted is plagued with similarly unrealistic expectations of what middle-schoolers are like. Still, it's charming and uplifting, as long as you don't think too hard about it.]

    [Aside #2: I assume Korman doesn't have kids of his own, given the lack of fuss and drama made about a 4-hour labor, except to compare it against the 90-minute labor of a dog birthing 4 puppies, and say that the dog had it easy. A 4-hour labor is unusually speedy, though the book makes it appear that it took forever.]
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Donovan is the class cut-up. When he finds himself in over his head after one prank too many, he miraculously gets the opportunity to hide out in the gifted and talented school.Donovan is not gifted in the traditional academic sense, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a special talents. When Donovan put is special skills to good use, who knows what can happen? This story is told through multiple points of view and proves that we aren't always what we seem.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Due to an administrative mix-up, troublemaker Donovan Curtis is sent to the Academy of Scholastic Distinction, a special program for gifted and talented students, after pulling a major prank at middle school.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Epic, hilarious, classic Korman! Donovan is the kid who gets an idea and just does or says whatever... immediately. Without thinking. He's been voted most likely to end up in jail, and has become a lifer in school detention. The afternoon his teacher sneaks off to watch the junior high championship game, Donovan's buddies bust him out of detention, and he ends up whacking the globe off the hilltop statue of Atlas holding up the world. Unfortunately, the giant bronze globe ends up demolishing the glass doors and front entrance of the gym, along with a sizeable portion of the gym floor, and terrifying the packed crowd at the game. After being nabbed by the superintendent himself, Donovan is sent home to await his expulsion papers.... and instead, there's a letter that arrives stating he has passed all of the exams and qualifications for the Academy of Scholastic Distinction, and his transfer is effective immediately. Donovan can barely put a decent paragraph together and is lucky if all of his grades are above C average (actually that usually means he's sitting next to someone a lot smarter than him or his buddies, the two Daniels). The Academy is an amazing high tech facility with incredibly smart kids and teachers, and the only way Donovan's going to be able to hide from the consequences of his massive bronze and glass mess is if he can manage to find a way to stay in the Academy. Turns out his only talent is xbox related, and it's the one talent missing in the school robotics team -- they can build it, program it, modify it... but none of them have the gamer instincts to drive it to the win, or the ability to see beyond the math and physics and engineering into the fun! Between that and Donovan offering his very pregnant sister up as the class "Human Growth and Development" project so that they don't have to take summer school for that subject, Donovan thinks it just might work. Add a raucous middle school dance, a phenomenally epic robotics competition takedown, and chapters from every different voice in the book, this is laugh out loud funny, with enough heart to keep you cheering for every single character. 6th grade and up.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Donovan has a reputation as a troublemaker and a bit of a slacker. When an administrative mix-up has him transferred to the district's magnet school instead of in terrible trouble for his latest lapse in judgement, his life starts to change. The novel is told from the points of view of various characters. And while Donovan is not gifted in the traditional sense, his gifts do in fact enhance the lives of those he encounters. This was a fun, quick read that would make a good read aloud and might lead to good discussion for groups.

Book preview

Ungifted - Gordon Korman

UNEARTHED

DONOVAN CURTIS

IQ: 112

I want a refund from ancestry.com.

They traced my family all the way back to the revolution. And in all those forefathers and foremothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins, there was nobody like me. No bigmouth hung for treason; no classe clowne who they stuck in the stocks and threw rotten vegetables at. The closest match was this guy in the Civil War who jumped off a battlement, whatever that is. And he only did it because the Union army was firing on Fort Sumter. That’s what they put on his tombstone anyway. It sounds like a pretty good excuse to me.

I did things like that. If there were any battlements in my neighborhood, I’d probably jump off them all. And not because of any army. I’d do it just to see what would happen. Reckless, my mother called me. Poor impulse control. That’s the school psychologist. You’re going to break your idiot neck one day, or someone’s going to break it for you. My dad.

He was probably right. They were all right. But when the thing is right there in front of me, and I can kick it, grab it, shout it out, jump into it, paint it, launch it, or light it on fire, it’s like I’m a puppet on a string, powerless to resist. I don’t think; I do.

It can be little things, like throwing darts at a pool float to test my sister’s swimming skills, or spitting back at the llamas at the zoo. It can be more creative—a helium balloon, a fishhook, and Uncle Mark’s toupee. It can even be the smart-alecky comments that got me voted Most Likely to Wind Up in Jail in my middle school the last two years running.

Our fans are great; our team is nifty! We’re going to get blown out by fifty!

See, that was probably not the wisest thing to say on the day of the big game against our basketball archrivals, Salem Junior High. But I didn’t just say it; I broadcast it over the PA system to the entire school. I don’t know why I did it. The cheer was already fully formed in my mind—the poster advertising the big game had planted it there. It was definitely going to come out. Why share it with only the two Daniels, who were with me in the office awaiting sentence for our spitball war, when there was a perfectly good microphone a few feet away, unattended and live. Okay, it wasn’t live. I had to flick the switch. I even had pom-poms—well, a crumpled piece of paper for sound effects.

The howl of protest that went up all around the building surprised even me. It was like I’d gone from house to house, poisoning everybody’s dog. It was probably for my own good that I wound up in detention. If I’d been free in the halls at three-thirty, I would have been lynched. The sense of humor at Hardcastle Middle School didn’t extend to their precious basketball team.

Why’d you say we’re going to lose, man? asked Whelan Kaiser, starting center, peering down at the top of my head from his six-foot-four vantage.

Why? There was no logical explanation for what I did. It had to come from my DNA. That’s why I needed ancestry.com.

I was the only kid in detention that afternoon. All crimes had been forgiven in order to pad the audience for the big game against Salem, which had to have already started. All crimes except mine—dissing the basketball team. Even the Daniels—two-thirds of the spitball war—had been cut loose while I was doing time.

The Daniels weren’t at the game. I knew this because they were skulking in the bushes outside the detention room, making grotesque faces at me through the window. If they could make me laugh—and it wasn’t easy to hold back—I’d be in even more trouble. As it was, Mr. Fender was checking his watch every thirty seconds. He wanted to be at the game, not babysitting me.

Finally, he could bear it no longer. I’ll be right back, he told me sternly.

The instant he was gone, the window was flung open from the outside.

Come on! hissed Daniel Sanderson. Let’s get out of here!

He’s coming back, I protested.

No, he’s not, scoffed the other Daniel—Daniel Nussbaum. He’s going to the office to watch the feed from the security camera in the gym. You’ve only got ten more minutes. If he’s any kind of basketball fan, you’re golden.

I was out the window like a shot, breathing sweet, free air. See what I’m saying? The open road called, and I took it. This time I’d needed a little help. That’s where the Daniels came in. They helped me a lot. They’d helped me to the office with our spitball fight, and helped me to the PA mic by daring me to do it. With friends like them, sometimes I wondered why I would ever need enemies.

I turned on them. Thanks for letting me take the fall alone. Your support was really touching.

Nussbaum shrugged innocently. I couldn’t take credit for your poem.

It wasn’t a poem. It just happened to rhyme.

I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that, Sanderson put in. Don’t you think that’s kind of dorky? I mean, who rhymes anymore?

Nobody, I conceded, except the entire hip-hop community. I bounced a pinecone off his head, which only made him grin wider.

We were at the top of the hill, looking down on the gym we shared with Hardcastle High. The parking lot was jam-packed. A roaring cheer spilled out of the building.

Man, you couldn’t fit a Hot Wheels car in there! Nussbaum exclaimed, taking in the crowded lot. "Salem-vs.-Hardcastle is the place to be."

Let’s go check out the score, said Sanderson. We can see if our ‘nifty’ team will lose by ‘fifty.’

Yeah, Donovan, nice school spirit, Nussbaum added. Like he had any.

We started down, the Daniels jostling each other absently. A kind of friendly belligerence came naturally to those two. Maybe they were descended from the Hatfields and the McCoys. I’ll bet the Daniels had never checked it out on ancestry.com.

And then The Moment was upon me.

I must have passed the statue of Atlas a thousand times going back and forth on the campus of the Hardcastle Public Schools. Yet somehow it was like I’d never seen it before.

It was not the titan’s broad powerful shoulders supporting the bronze globe of the world and heavens that seemed so different. But since when did Atlas have such a big butt? Seriously, I knew he was a titan; but I didn’t know that the most titanic thing about him was his caboose. He looked like a reject from The Biggest Loser.

Suddenly, I was striding toward the statue, in an almost trancelike state. I picked up a fallen tree branch and made my approach.

Nussbaum noticed my zombielike concentration. Dude, what are you doing?

I didn’t answer, and he didn’t really expect me to. He knew me. They both did.

I cocked back the branch, and unloaded a home run swing. The impact vibrated up through my arms to my brain stem, and into every cell of my body. The branch shattered in my hands.

I have to say that this was always the best part of it for a guy like me—the split second the tomato hits the car; the very brief flight as I drop from the edge of the roof to the pool; the instant that the balloon lifts the toupee and the sun’s rays glint off that shiny bald head.

Or, in this case, the go-o-o-ong! sound from the statue’s bronze behind. The payoff. It was usually downhill from there. Sometimes literally.

Atlas shivered as the vibration traveled through his metal body. The celestial sphere shivered too, rocking dizzily on his muscular shoulders. At that point, I noticed for the first time that the sculpture wasn’t a single piece of metal, but two, bolted together at the nape of the titan’s neck.

Corrosion is a terrible thing. It was all in slow motion, but there was nothing you could do to stop it. With a crack, the bolt snapped, pieces whizzing out of sight. The ball of the world and heavens toppled and hit the ground with a whump!

I was still wrapped up in The Deed, lost in The Moment. It took the twin gasps from the Daniels to break the trance. And by that time, the heavy ball was already rolling.

Oh, no …

The big bronze globe careened down the hill toward the gym, picking up speed as it went. I ran after it, although what I thought I could do to stop it, I have no idea.

Help me! I called to the Daniels. But they were heading in the opposite direction. They liked to watch me do stuff; they had a lot less interest in hanging around for the consequences.

Heart sinking, I projected the course of the runaway globe. The prognosis was not good. It was hurtling straight for the parking lot, where a lot of innocent cars were waiting to get bashed in. Desperately, I threw myself headfirst at the juggernaut. When my shoulder struck the heavy metal, it felt like running into a brick wall. If it changed the direction at all, it was about a millionth of an inch. Flat on my face now, all I could do was watch.

The globe screamed down toward all that expensive machinery, bounced off an upturned curbstone, and caromed toward the building. The cars were safe, but the world and heavens were now on a collision course with the basketball game.

It pulverized the glass doors, sending up a blizzard of shards that obscured the entrance. I heard a very sharp whistle blast, like the referee was calling a foul on Atlas, or possibly me.

There was another relative on ancestry.com. He wasn’t very much like me. I doubt I would have remembered him at all, except for his name—James Donovan. I’d wondered if I was named after him, although my mother claimed she’d never heard of the guy. He emigrated from Ireland in 1912, which would have been fine except that the ship he picked was—think Atlas here—the Titanic.

As decision makers, he and I were pretty much on the same level.

But get this: He didn’t die. He was plucked from the freezing water alive.

James Donovan was a survivor.

If I’d inherited any of those skills, I had a sinking feeling they were about to come in handy.

UNIDENTIFIED

DR. SCHULTZ

IQ: 127

To be the superintendent of a school district like Hardcastle, with its forty-seven buildings and more than thirty thousand students, was a huge responsibility. A lot of administrators would have hundreds of complicated rules to follow. I only had one: No screwups.

So when I took time out of my busy schedule and burdensome duties to attend a middle school basketball game, I expected to see orderly students, good sportsmanship, and happy alumni. What I did not expect to see was a giant metal ball blasting into the gymnasium, scattering players like tenpins. Not only did it create a dangerous situation, but it also reflected very badly on the Hardcastle schools.

Miraculously, no one was injured. Still, there was a lot of chaos as the parents of the players rushed to their sons on the floor in an effort to protect them from whatever this onslaught was.

I knew instantly. That globe was part of the statue of Atlas that stood on the knoll overlooking the school. And it certainly hadn’t rolled itself down to the gym. I raced through the shattered door and onto the lawn. I could see the ribbon of crushed grass all the way back to the figure of Atlas, who looked peculiar, bent under the weight of absolutely nothing.

The culprit lay in the flattened path, raised up on his elbows, staring at the damage, guilty. You, there! I called.

The boy tried to scramble up and run, but he couldn’t get any traction on the squashed turf. By the time he found his feet, I was upon him, and he was caught.

Come with me to my office.

His shoulders slumped. Yeah, okay. He looked as worried as he ought to be. I drew some small satisfaction from that.

The administration building was on the very same campus, but the boy didn’t speak on the way over, not even to protest his innocence. A fat lot of good that would have done him. I had him dead to rights. And the evidence—a four-hundred-pound bronze sphere, and the damage it had caused—spoke plainly about what he had done.

At last, we reached my office, and I glared at him across my desk. Do you know who I am?

He shook his head, and had the grace to look a little scared.

I am Dr. Schultz, Superintendent of the Hardcastle Independent School District. And I’ll have your name and your school’s name right now.

"Donovan Curtis. I go here—I mean Hardcastle Middle, where, uh, it happened."

I wrote the information on a piece of paper on the cluttered desk in front of me. Well, Donovan Curtis, I don’t have to tell you that you’re in big trouble right now. You’re lucky that no one was hurt or even killed by that stunt of yours. Why would you do such a thing?

It was an accident.

If he thought he could get away with an excuse like that, he had picked the wrong administrator. A giant metal ball doesn’t plow through a building by accident.

He spoke up again. I hit the statue with a branch, but I didn’t think the world would fall off.

You didn’t think—

My secretary, Mrs. De Bourbon, came bustling in, looking worried. I’m so sorry to disturb you, Dr. Schultz, but you’re needed urgently back at the gym. Someone called the fire department from a cell phone, and you’re the only one with the authority to send them away. She frowned. Nothing’s on fire, is it?

No, of course not. I was halfway to the door when I hesitated. What to do with the boy? He was looking hopeful, as if he were home free. But believe me, he wasn’t. It would serve him right if I left him sitting here, cooling his heels, while I went out to deal with the mess he’d made! But who knew how long that would take? By now those firefighters could be finding code violations in the gym! And I had a dinner meeting across town....

I skewered him with my most severe expression. You can go. I’ll send for you tomorrow morning, and we can continue this discussion.

He was out of there like a shot. I wasn’t far behind him when Mrs. De Bourbon called me back.

I’m sorry to bother you again, but Student Services needs the list of the new candidates for the gifted program.

I sighed. Did everything have to pass through me? I was only one person! It’s on my desk, Cynthia. You can’t miss it.

What a nightmare! There was damage to the gym floor in addition to the doors, which were a total loss. The foundry that had made the statue had gone out of business five years ago, so good luck getting a replacement globe for Atlas. The district’s insurance agent was on vacation for the next two weeks.

I missed my dinner meeting and my dinner. By the time I got back to my office, I was almost insane with aggravation. This was exactly why I couldn’t tolerate screwups. There was no such thing as just one. The first led to the second, and pretty soon they were coming at you in battalions. I needed to accomplish one real thing on this miserable day, and I knew exactly what it was going to be: I was going to call that boy’s parents and let them know the damage and

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