Reader Response # 4
March 30, 2011 Ali from 8D
I am responding to SCHOOLED by GORDAN KORMAN. I have read 105 pages out of 236 pages. The text is fiction.
Introduction
The main character of Schooled is Capricorn Anderson (Cap for short) who is a 13 year old boy who has to face the harshness of the outside world after being protected for years in his farm commune called Garland. Rachel Esther Rosenblatt (nicknamed Rain) is Cap’s grandmother and caregiver since he was born but after she gets hurt from falling off a tree, Cap needs a new caregiver in the world outside his commune. Other characters include Mrs. Donnelly, Cap’s new guardian and her bratty daughter, Sophie, and Zach, a bully at Cap’s new school.
I think the book is a mystery because of how mysterious Cap is and how he has no idea about the modern world. It can also be considered a thriller when things take a wild turn like a 13 year old driving a school bus!
The setting of this novel takes place mostly in the school, Claverage Middle School (called C Average by students) and around Mrs. Donnelly’s home up till where I have read. It takes place in the year 2007.
I am enjoying the book very much because the uniqueness of the characters and the book itself and I will explain why in the “Reflect” section of this response.
Retell
In a couple of sentences, I can summarize the book till where I read by saying that it is about a boy named Cap who has lived with his grandmother all his life. He and his grandmother try to stay away from the modern world. They barely had electricity, let alone a TV or computer. It’s like they are from different planets. Cap has to go to middle school after being homeschooled for all his life. All this happens because his grandmother has to go to the hospital and because she was his only guardian, he has to reside with the Donnellys. He gets made fun of because he is different since he came from a community that is almost not even linked with the real world. He gets elected student president but that is just to make him a laughing stock. After saving a man’s life by taking him to the hospital, Cap starts to be treated differently, like a hero and starts being recognized for his uniqueness instead of being made fun of.
The character I like best is Cap, but not just because he is the main character but because he is so innocent and doesn’t get bothered by little things. He also saved a life by driving a school bus! He also takes his grandmother’s words of wisdom wisely like not thinking negatively. I find it funny that he doesn’t know the things that we would think everyone knows like pizza.
So far, I love the parts of the book when Cap doesn’t react by the pranks his school mates play on him like taking his shoes and hanging them on a tree. This shows that they aren’t doing any good by bothering him and it makes me laugh at how much time they are wasting when accomplishing nothing!
Another one of my favourite scenes was when Cap is driving the school bus because the driver has a heart attack and it gets pretty intense when the cops start going after a reckless teen driver! I was shocked when the cops were about to arrest him. If I were the cop, I wouldn’t even think about arresting the boy, I would thank him so much for saving a man’s life.
Relate
At first, I thought that this book would relate a lot to The Diary of a Wimpy Kid by just looking at the cover of this and reading the back, but it was actually very different. Schooled is about some boy who is learning about the whole world as well as middle school but The Diary of a Wimpy Kid is just about the hardships of middle school. The characters are also very different like how Cap doesn’t know a thing about the outside world.
If I was Cap, I would actually stand up for myself when Mrs. Donnelly’s daughter, Sophie was bothering him. It would show her that she shouldn’t be treating Cap like nothing just because he was raised differently.
When these two kids were fighting at Cap’s middle school and the by - standers were just yelling “Fight, fight”, it reminded me of times at our own school where people just watch people fight and do the exact same thing and don’t help stop but instead encourage to do more of what Cap hates, violence. It rarely does happen at our school but it still happens and I think that should stop and somebody should take a stand for these situations other than teachers!
Reflect
Even though I like this book, I question its realistic characteristics because it is quite bizarre when a 13 year old drives a car. I personally thought it was weird that Cap can drive at such a young age yet he doesn’t get charged for doing something illegal like this.
The reason I like this book is because even though the character Cap isn’t fond with the world outside of his farm, he seems to know what he is doing and it makes him seem heroic.
The book itself is very uniquely written because the chapters aren’t based on what is happening at all. Instead each chapter just says a character’s name, and the story is told by them in their perspective. It was a bit confusing to get used to in the beginning but I can understand why the author did it; to give people a better understanding of how each character feels. This was actually a good call from the author because characters like the bullies and Cap certainly feel different about what is going.
At this point, I can infer that Cap is beginning to get the hang of the modern world and when his grandmother gets better, he won’t want to live with her anymore since he won’t want to give up his new friends he has met. He also loves a TV show called “Trigonometry and Tears” which he may not be able to see if he goes back to his grandmother.
So far, I would certainly recommend this book because its characters aren’t like any other book I have read and it is written by an author of several other books and series like Kidnapped, On the Run, Born to Rock and many more!
