• Age: 9 to 18
• Grade: 5 to 9

Capricorn (Cap) Anderson has never watched television. He's never tasted a pizza. Never heard of a wedgie. Since he was little, his only experience has been living on a farm commune and being home-schooled by his hippie grandmother, Rain. But when Rain falls out of a tree while picking plums and has to stay in the hospital, Cap is forced to move in with a guidance counselor and her cranky teen daughter and attend the local middle school.

While Cap knows a lot about tie-dying and Zen Buddhism, no education could prepare him for the politics of public school. Right from the beginning, Cap's weirdness makes him a moving target at Claverage Middle School (dubbed C-Average by the students). He has long, ungroomed hair; wears hemp clothes; and practises tai chi on the lawn. Once Zack Powers, big man on campus, spots Cap, he can't wait to introduce him to the age-old tradition at C-Average: the biggest nerd is nominated for class president-and wins.

 

Gordon Korman
est né à Montréal et a grandi dans la région de Toronto. Il a signé son
premier contrat chez Scholastic à l'âge de 14 ans, avec son premier livre
Deux farceurs au collège.
Il est maintenant l'auteur de plus de 60 livres, dont beaucoup lui ont valu
de nombreuses récompenses. Gordon habite dans la ville de New York.

 

Gordon Korman is the #1 bestselling author of three books in The 39 Clues series as well as eight books in his Swindle series: Swindle, Zoobreak, Framed, Showoff, Hideout, Jackpot, Unleashed, and Jingle. His other books include This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall! (published when he was 14); The Toilet Paper Tigers; Radio Fifth Grade; Slacker; Restart; Whatshisface; Level 13; the trilogies Island, Everest, Dive, Kidnapped, and Titanic; and the series The Hypnotists and On the Run. Gordon grew up in Thornhill, Ontario and he lives in New York with his family. Visit him online at www.gordonkorman.com.

Gordon Korman's profile page

Schooled

In the past decade, Gordon Korman – creator of the Macdonald Hall series – has also written sports books, adventure books and even a homage to The Great Gatsby. In Schooled, however, he very successfully returns to the classic Korman humour of I Want to Go Home and Losing Joe’s Place.

Thirteen-year-old Cap Anderson (short for Capricorn) is one of the two remaining residents of a 1960s commune, where he lives with his grandmother Rain, isolated from modern commerce, technology and people. But when Rain breaks her hip, Cap is taken under the wing of a social service worker and sent to Claverage Middle School.

As the new kid and the hippie (when faced with a locker, he is bewildered and says, “When we lock things away, we’re really imprisoning ourselves.”), Cap is immediately the butt of jokes and the chosen victim. The Claverage students soon elect him Grade 8 president – a job usually given to the perceived loser.

What saves Cap is his utter naivete and openness, which prevents him from recognizing much of the sarcasm and meanness of his peers and allows him to be utterly and refreshingly honest with them. As well, Cap has abilities denied to other kids (he’s been driving a truck since he was eight) and the innocence to defy adult rules (since he has no idea most of them exist). Both make him increasingly intriguing to the other kids, at the same time as Cap begins to find excitement in the world outside Garland Farm.

This is vintage Korman with adept observation of the world of middle school, a well-plotted story and lots of humour.

Schooled

Moving to a new school isn’t easy when you've been home-schooled in a commune all your life. In this city mouse/country mouse tale, country mouse wears tie-dyed t-shirts and cornhusk sandals and saves a suburban middle school from rampant cynicism.