105 pages • 3 hours read
Gordon KormanUngifted
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 12-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary: “Unrockin’, Chloe Garfinkle, IQ: 159”
As she prepares for the dance, Chloe is excited to prove her hypothesis that “Being gifted doesn’t automatically make people social outcasts” (75). She credits Donovan for creating the opportunity, though she notes “[h]e couldn’t possibly have destroyed the Hardcastle gym,” thus forcing the dance to be relocated to ASD. She reflects back on her first meeting with Donovan; she knew from the beginning that he was “almost too normal” (75). She knows that he is probably not gifted, despite having contributed to their community by solving the Human Growth and Development requirement.
Most of Chloe’s wardrobe features flannel, which she deems more appropriate to farming than a school dance. Instead, she chooses a dress she wore to her aunt’s wedding, dressing it down with a cardigan. Thinking about the girls she saw at the mall with Donovan, she wears light make-up. Her father declares her “beautiful,” prompting her to hypothesize that “The compliment loses credibility in direct proportion to how closely related you are to the speaker” (76).
At school, the gym is crammed with people, and the room’s temperature rises steadily. The decorations are a clichéd assortment of “hearts and cupids” (77). Chloe notices the Hardcastle students are “brasher,” “wilder, and more confident” than their ASD counterparts (78). She attempts to make conversation with a Hardcastle student, but he mocks her for being overdressed. Still, Chloe is exhilarated to be at her first party. Her classmates stick to the margins. Noah arrives dressed like a character from a wrestling match, in a sequined vest, black tights, and his mother’s knee-high red boots. Chloe does not see Donovan and worries that he is not going to come. As the gym becomes more and more crowded, Chloe is “swept along with the movement of the crowd” (80). She realizes that she is stumbling to the music’s beat and raises her hands in the air as she sees other students doing. This is dancing, she realizes. She is “letting it all hang out at a major middle school bash,” and she is having “the greatest night of [her] life!” (80).
Chapter 13 Summary: “Untrustworthy, Donovan Curtis, IQ: 112”
Donovan calls the dance “the worst night of [his] life” (81). He had offered to do extra credit for Mr. Osborne, but both knew it would be pointless. Attending a school dance is the “only thing” Donovan could do “every bit as well” as his gifted classmates (81).
At the dance, he sees the Hardcastle kids smirking at ASD students and making “nasty remarks” about them (81). One ASD student asks upwards of six girls to dance but is “shot down” by all (81). The Daniels mock Abigail’s dancing to Donovan. When they ask her to dance, Donovan fears they are building her up to knock her down and grabs her away from them. To distract her, Donovan begins dancing with her. The Daniels turn their attention to a girl who is “more their type,” overdressed but “tall with long legs and a really cute face” (83). Shocked, Donovan realizes it is Chloe. He pairs Noah and Abigail together and rushes toward the Daniels, grabbing them by the scruff of their necks as Chloe protests and steering them into the boys’ restroom. He reminds them that he has no choice but to stay at ASD. The Daniels make fun of Noah, prompting Donovan to tell them Noah is smarter than everyone put together. The Daniels tell Donovan he is “no fun anymore” (84). In the past, he would have been making fun of these kids, too. The three boys reminisce about getting thrown out of Scouts together, and Donovan agrees to show them Tin Man.
He takes them to his homeroom and admits that he does not understand any of what the kids are doing. Even Mr. Osborne only understands half. Still, he must remain at the school until “the heat dies down,” in order to protect his family from fallout related to the gym damage (87). The Daniels finally seem to sympathize with how out of his element Donovan is at ASD. The three boys return to the overcrowded gym. The Daniels leave to find Heather and Deirdre. Donovan resolves to find Mr. Osborne, to secure his extra credit, then go home. He sees Mr. Osborne, but Dr. Shultz is standing next to him. Extra credit forgotten, Donovan drops on all fours, out of Dr. Shultz’s line of vision. At the gym door, Donovan gives one look back and sees the Daniels with Tin Man in the center of dance floor. Donovan fears that Mr. Shultz will see him if he returns to the gym and tries to convince himself the robot is not his to worry about, but he still feels responsible. At that moment, he realizes that he cares. He could not stop the Atlas globe’s damage once it got rolling, but the damage to Tin Man has not yet been done.
He rushes toward the dance floor, with his ASD classmates on his heels, and tackles Daniel Nussbaum, who pulls off one of Tin Man’s arms as he goes down then holds it up to a cheer from the Hardcastle students. A shoving match ensues between Hardcastle and ASD students. Noah throws himself off the deejay’s speaker tower into the crowd, a move Donovan figures he learned from watching wrestling matches. Dr. Shultz sets off the fire alarm, and hundreds of students swarm the exit. Donovan takes the opportunity to flee before Dr. Shultz recognizes him.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Unsorry, Noah Youkilis, IQ: 206”
After the dance, Noah ponders YouTube’s “conundrums,” positing that the best videos result from the unexpected, but “it isn’t practical to have a camera in hand at all times to capture it” (91). He cites as evidence his self-described heroic exploits at the Valentine’s dance. However, in the melee, Tin Man sustained permanent damage to its motor, and the robotics team has no budget money left to replace it.
Abigail is distraught that the team will have to withdraw from the competition. Noah is more upset that no one seems to care about the injuries he sustained jumping off the speaker. Chloe asks Donovan why the students would harm Tin Man, and he explains that Hardcastle students have “an attitude about the gifted program” (91). Their facilities are “ancient ruins” compared to ASD, and though they call ASD’s students “nerds,” they envy their “cool” robot (91). Noah believes the robot is complicated but not cool. He is more taken with the riot that ensued because riots are “unforeseeable and chaotic,” like YouTube.
Mr. Osborne informs the students they will be unable to acquire a new motor in time for the robotics competition. After class, Donovan gathers the students to tell them he has found them a motor. It is currently running the floor polishers, but Donovan guesses it will fit. He brings the students to the empty custodial office, and Noah and the rest of the class realize they are liberating the engine from the floor polisher without the custodians’ knowledge. Abigail is furious, but Donovan reminds her it’s the school’s motor, not the custodians’. Noah notes that he has seen “things like this” on YouTube but never imagined being part of them in real life (94).
Noah serves as lookout. When he gives the code word indicating one of the custodians is coming, Donovan springs into action, until Noah tells him he was “just testing” (94). Donovan warns him that they will be watching his funeral on YouTube if he does that again. Noah admires Donovan but is also a bit frightened of him. The combination is exhilarating, and Noah feels he was not fully alive “until Donovan showed up at the Academy” (94). The engine fits Tin Man, and the team proceeds with their competition preparations.
Noah hears a rumor that the administration plans to retest Donovan. Chloe is upset, but Abigail is not surprised, since it’s obvious Donovan is not gifted. Noah and Chloe discuss Donovan’s contributions: acquiring a new motor, solving the Human Growth and Development credits. Noah asserts that the team needs Donovan. Chloe suggest that he might pass the retest, but no one believes it. Noah points out that the test is computerized. All it would take is hacking into the system and taking control of his mouse. Abigail is horrified at the idea of cheating and points out how much trouble Noah would get into. The idea of getting into trouble intrigues him, though he believes the school would probably “just take the opportunity to give me extra credit” (97). Noah realizes he and Donovan are “two sides of the same coin”: Noah is trying to get out of ASD, and Donovan is struggling to stay (97).
Chapter 15 Summary: “Untested, Donovan Curtis, IQ: 112”
Donovan is not speaking to the Daniels. He blames himself for Noah inadvertently giving Daniel Sanderson a black eye at the dance, since he introduced Noah to YouTube. Still, Donovan believes Sanderson had it coming for wheeling Tin Man into the gym. Katie asks him why he cares. Donovan explains that he resents the Daniels for treating “the gifted kids like they don’t measure up as humans” (98). However, when Sanderson texts a photo of his bruised face, Donovan relents and visits him, expecting to receive an apology. Instead, Sanderson wants Donovan to back up his story to Heather and Deirdre that he was brutalized by a bully. Eventually, the Daniels show some remorse but insist the look on Donovan’s face made the prank “Totally worth it” (100). They mock the ASD kids for being abnormal, and Donovan tells them to leave the smart kids, and their robot, alone. The Daniels insist they were just fooling around, and there was a time Donovan would have been right alongside them. Donovan realizes the Daniels are the same, but he has changed.
Donovan anticipates the retest like “a death row inmate” approaching his execution (100). His classmates’ concern and offers of help touch him. Chloe attempts to coach him, but everything she says goes over his head. Donovan keeps imagining her as she looked at the dance and feels sad that she will find out “exactly how smart [he] wasn’t” (101). He plans to empty his locker after hours to avoid having her witness his disgrace. He imagines a few weeks into the future, when no one except Noah remembers his name, except Noah will probably pretend not to remember.
At homeroom, Donovan hands his science project to Mr. Osborne. Looking at the photo, Noah points out that Beatrice is pregnant, something neither Donovan nor his family had noticed. They had assumed she was dying. Donovan grabs the science project back from Mr. Osborne. It is time for his retest in the library. The class looks “devastated” as Mr. Osborne chaperones Donovan out of class (103). The test begins, and Donovan does not understand the first question. He thinks of his ancestor, James Donovan, resisting the pull of the sinking Titanic and realizes he does not have James’s strength. As he attempts to answer the first question, the pointer on the screen begins acting of its own accord. After three questions, Donovan realizes someone is taking the test for him. His eyes fill with tears as he realizes that somewhere in ASD is “the greatest friend [he] never knew [he] had” (105). He believes the Daniels would not have done this for him. He is staying afloat, like James Donovan. He wonders, “Who was doing this for me?” (105).
Chapters 12-15 Analysis
Chapters 12 through 15 explore the growth of Chloe, Donovan, and Noah. Chloe revels in her opportunity to experience what she considers normal middle school life and prepares meticulously, using her brief interaction with Heather and Deirdre as a model of normalcy. At the dance, Chloe initially feels anxiety about dancing and, with a typical gifted student’s attitude, overthinks what it looks like. The chaos of the crowd pulls her into its tide, and she shuffles her feet without a sense of direction, gradually realizing that she has achieved dancing. She was able to let go of control and thought and instead feel and act, the actions that come so effortlessly—and sometimes problematically—for Donovan. In this sense, she moves closer toward the center of the continuum, balancing thinking and acting.
Donovan’s growth also means moving closer to the continuum’s center, but he is approaching that center from the opposite direction. Seeing the Daniels mock Abigail upsets him not because he feels particularly close to her but because he objects to the Daniels treating Abigail like an object for their amusement. Similarly, Donovan feels protective of Chloe, especially because she does not realize that the Daniels might be mocking her. Still, when the Daniels confront Donovan about the ways he has changed, Donovan feels torn between two loyalties. He attempts to reconcile them by introducing the Daniels to Tin Man, but they take advantage of his gesture by wheeling Tin Man into the gym. They treat the robot the way they treat Chloe and Abigail: as an object of entertainment. Donovan elects to re-enter the fray and rescue Tin Man from the Hardcastle students even though he risks being caught by Dr. Shultz. By the end of the dance, Donovan has learned to care about the kids he would previously have simply made fun of, while Chloe has learned to embrace thinking and doing.
Thus far in the book, Noah has romanticized unpredictability in the way Chloe has romanticized normalcy. Both want to experience and feel, though Noah’s motive differs from Chloe’s. For Noah, unpredictability means the ability to make mistakes, to not have all the answers, to be capable of being surprised. His WWE-inspired outfit and leap into the crowd represent his attempts to do the unexpected. In this sense, Noah’s desire for unpredictability suggest a potentially self-destructive streak. Up to this point, Noah’s teachers have transformed every mistake he has made into evidence of his brilliance because his mistakes are intentional and planned, rather than spontaneous. Noah’s further growth will happen later in the novel, when he realizes that he is capable of making genuine, spontaneous, and unpredictable mistakes.
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