Schooled.

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Korman again utilizes a school setting for another hilarious novel aimed at middle school readers. Claverage Middle School (drop the “l” from its name and it’s “C average” Middle School) has a tradition of electing, by acclamation, the school’s biggest loser as the grade eight president and then humiliating him/her for the rest of the school year. BMOC Zach Powers, who captains both the soccer and football teams, has already selected this year’s victim—Hugh Winkleman, “since kindergarten, the primo nerd, bar none.” However, Zach quickly reconsiders his choice with the arrival of a new student, the long-haired Capricorn (Cap) Anderson.

Until now, Rain, Cap’s 67-year-old grandmother, has homeschooled her orphaned grandson on Garland Farm, where the two are the last members of a hippie commune established in the1960s. When a broken hip requires Rain’s having two months of hospital rehab, Cap must be placed in foster care and temporarily attend “regular” school. Having never experienced the world beyond Garland, Cap is truly a stranger having to survive in a strange land. Cap’s arrival also provides Hugh with much wanted anonymity, and while he adopts a “better him than me” stance, Hugh feels guilty and becomes Cap’s first, and initially only, friend among the school’s 1,100 students. However, as Cap naively stumbles into becoming the school’s most popular student, Zach and Hugh actually become allies. Fans of Korman’s writings will recognize that loser Cap will eventually overcome and that the mighty Zach will fall, but not before a great deal of delightfully humorous chaos occurs. Highly recommended.