Review: Schooled by Gordon Korman

Capricorn Anderson (Cap for short ) has only one person in his life, his grandmother Rain. He and his grandmother  live on Garland Farms, a commune set up by Rain before Cap was born. Cap
is homeschooled by his grandmother and knows nothing of the outside world or about how to interact with other people.

That all changes when Rain falls out of a tree and breaks her hip. Cap is forced to leave his grandmother's side and go to live with a social worker who was once part of the Garland commune.

Cap is enrolled in a public junior high school while he waits for Rain to recover.



Each chapter in the book is told from a different point of view. Below are excerpts from each character's chapter.  See for yourself why I say that Gordon Korman took me back to junior high school and reminded me why I would give a kidney if someone ever made be go back.

Cap: "Like what were those little white paper balls that I kept brushing out of my hair every night? Was there so much paper in a school that the molecules eventually clustered and fell like precipitation? And how did a pickled brain and all those other weird objects get into my locker?

Sophie (daughter of the social worker): "Still, never in my wildest nightmares could I have imagined myself living with a refugee from Bizarro World.

Hugh (class nerd before Cap showed up):I shut my mouth and kept it shut, trying to keep my eyes off the spitball still lodged just above Cap's left ear. I felt bad about it, but I felt something else too: Better him than me.

Zach ( the self-proclaimed "god" of the 8th grade class): "Hug Winkleman, you're a lukcy man.  With  the arrival of this new kid, all the losers in the school were bumped down one space.  Never before had anyone screamed for the job of eighth grade president like Capricorn Anderson.  This was my year!

Mrs. Donelly ( the social worker): "I looked at Capricorn Anderson, and that's what I saw - not a cast, but a time traveler, about to step into a world that had forgotten the sixties except for J.F.K and the Beatles.

Will Cap surive?