Schooled, by author Gordon Korman, opens with Capricorn Anderson's hippie grandma falling out of a tree and breaking her hip. Capricorn, who has lived on a farm commune his entire life, is sent to live with a social worker who also grew up on that commune while his grandma is recuperating. While living with the social worker, Flora, Cap has to go to a regular middle school. The "popular" kids at this school have a cruel tradition of nominating the biggest nerd in the school for class president. Cap, who from the beginning at Claverage middle school stuck out from the rest of the kids, is nominated class president. The kids at Claverage though begin to like Cap for his views and personality. Cap turns out to be the greatest president the school has ever had, but when Cap attempts to stop a fight he gets punched in the face. At the end of that school day he gets in an ambulance to talk to his grandmother and to go back to Garland, their commune. The students don't see Cap after that, so subsequently, they think he's dead. Cap meanwhile, doesn’t know that he got the Halloween dance canceled, since he is back and isolated at his commune. The students though, hold a candlelight vigil outside of the school in the parking lot on the evening of the Halloween dance. Sophie, Flora's daughter, drives to the commune and picks up Cap to take him to the canceled Halloween dance. They both don't know that it's been canceled though, so they arrive in the midst of the vigil for Cap. Cap then climbs onto a truck and subsequently addresses every student in the school by name, showing that he has somehow memorized every student in the school's name. After Cap has returned to Garland his grandma decides to sell the place, which after sixty years is worth 17 million dollars, and start a charitable foundation.
I think the theme of Schooled is that things about you can change but your values, ideals, and the way you treat people don't have to. In Schooled, Cap changes some things about himself, like the fact that he develops a love for T.V. and that he now enjoys being around other kids, but he doesn't change the way that he is always very nice and pleasant to other people. There is an example of that in the book when Capricorn is talking about his favorite show, Trigonometry and Tears which is a soap opera about high school. The book says: "Rain said television was a vast wasteland that lowered our standards until we couldn't tell the difference between bad and good. I would never disagree with her, but I thought Trigonometry and Tears was fantastic". That passage from the book was Cap talking about his favorite show. There is also a passage from the book that I think is a good example of Cap being nice. He offers driving lessons to Sophie Donnelly even though she calls him stuff like "My Favorite Martian", "a passing hobo", and "freakazoid".
There once was a time when I went to a weeklong overnight rock climbing camp in Vermont. While I was there I discovered that I really liked rock climbing, but even though I didn't know anybody there I didn't decide to change my personality for that week to be a kid who swore a lot or a really hyper type of person.
I think I enjoyed this book because of the weirdness of it. I liked how through all that the other kids at this school put him through Cap doesn’t emerge as jaded or cynical. He always maintain this trust of other people and he always expects the best out of others, no matter what they put him through. I also just plain liked the plot of the book. It was just fun and you want to keep reading just to find out what happens to Cap on the next page. I would totally recommend this book to my friends because I really enjoyed reading it. Anyone looking for a fun book and a good read should definitely consider this book.
link to another review here: http://www.kidzworld.com/article/14077-schooled-book-review
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