When a Book Sets the Readers Thinking...A Lot Happens.

At the Young Readers' Club, we have been reading Ungifted by Gordon Korman. True to his style, Korman narrates the story from different character perspectives. Through these narratives, the story progresses as readers form impressions about each character in the story. In Ungifted, we experienced something different.

Ungifted is a book that showcases a kid who is accidentally sent to the school for the gifted. Gifted are those with exceptional IQs and skills that are hard to come by. They are a class apart. One can only imagine what it would be like to be someone with an IQ like most people to be surrounded by brilliant kids who don't have time for play or fun of any kind. Will this kid, Donovan Curtis, who has had much fun in his life, gets B grade most of the time, change these gifted children or will they change him? We don't know yet...

What we are amazed about at the moment is this. At the start of the book, we, inspite of our best intentions, branded Donovan Curtis to be trouble. We called him impulsive. But as we moved to the school for the gifted, our attitude towards him gradually started to change. We started to feel sorry for him. We found the other characters to be rude and insensitive.

If a book can set readers thinking in the direction of how a character has been treated unfairly, find another character's remarks rude...aren't the chances high that these readers will never utter words or resort to actions mindlessly that could potentially hurt someone?

As the books progresses, it is highly likely that the young readers will want to protect the protagonist in any way they can. It is after all a book. But the story is as real as it can possibly get.

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The Young Readers' Club is a book club for the 8-12 age group. We also do vocabulary building activities and mini writing lessons for a little variety!

Writing programs for the 9-12 age group- Young Writers' Club Jr.  

The Young Writers' Club program for the 13-16 age group offers a weekly platform to read and discuss curated articles from the news, observe writing approaches and practise one's writing skills.

NEW! Tween Tribune  is an online magazine for the Young Writers' Club (Jr.) program for tweens. Weekly updates of our discussions are published. Once in 6 months, the best of writing by the tween members is made available to read.

 NEW! Musings from the Young Writers' Club is an online magazine showcasing the work we do at the Young Writers' Club.