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 16-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary: “Unforgivable, Ms. Bevelaqua, IQ: 140”
Ms. Bevelaqua notes parallels between The Wizard of Oz and Mr. Osborne’s class, especially where Donovan is concerned. She likens his test score to the Scarecrow’s meaningless diploma. He passed the test but is still failing math and science, barely passing English, and earning a C- in social studies. His only acceptable grade is his B in robotics, mostly owing to his ability with a joystick. Mr. Del Rio reminds Ms. Bevelaqua that the faculty cuts Noah Youkilis “a lot of slack” (106), and asks why they can’t do the same for Donovan. She is not convinced. She believes the faculty puts too much stock in test scores and gives Donovan too much credit for having solved the Human Growth and Development problem. Keeping Donovan at ASD, she believes, dilutes the quality of the gifted students’ education and prevents Donovan from learning “at his own level” (107).
Believing that Mr. Osborne is “the last bastion of sanity left in the building,” Ms. Bevelaqua storms into the robotics lab to confront him and finds the class lying on the floor, practicing a new form of Lamaze breathing that Noah developed. After class ends, Mr. Osborne crows that the project’s outcome has dispelled his earlier doubts. It has transformed the course into something “meaningful, and beautiful, and rooted in the real world” (108). He plans to write an article for American Teacher about it. Undaunted, Ms. Bevelaqua asks Mr. Osborne if he has noticed any improvement in Donovan’s academic performance. Mr. Osborne admits he has not but reminds her that Donovan passed the test. She wonders if he did pass and voices her concern that one of ASD’s students hacked into the system to answer the questions for him. Mr. Osborne says they have no evidence of that. Even worse, according to Ms. Bevelaqua, there is no one smart enough among the faculty and administrators to find evidence of cheating.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Cheating Investigation, Interview with Donovan Curtis”
Ms. Bevelaqua confronts Donovan about his test score, pointing out that it “far outstrips any work” he has done in class (110). He suggests some students are good test takers. She suggests someone might have helped him and demands a name. Donovan feigns ignorance. When she reminds him that “we’re talking about cheating here,” he asks her which of these high achievers would “risk that kind of trouble to help someone like me” (110).
Chapter 18 Summary: “Unreal, Katie Patterson, IQ: 107”
Katie confirms with the veterinarian that Beatrice is pregnant and due around the same time as Katie, who has not told Brad. She does not want to burden him with her problems—which include back aches, varicose veins, “raging hormones,” and frequent trips to the bathroom—while he is risking his life in Afghanistan (111). In their email exchanges, he expresses how “relaxed and happy” she seems and asks what her secret is (111). She attributes it to being the Human Growth and Development case study, which has become “like therapy” (112).
Initially, she was furious at her brother for blackmailing her and uncomfortable “being stared at by these geniuses with their Coke-bottle glasses and analytical frowns” (112). One morning, she realizes that she has been counting down the minutes until her scheduled visit to ASD. She could complain to them, express her fears to them, or ask them whether a particular food was safe to eat, and they would have the answers because “they understood everything” (112). They accompany her to every appointment, and even her obstetrician does not begin Katie’s appointment until the kids arrive. Not only will they pass the course; they will be qualified to teach it. All, Katie realizes, except Donovan.
During one visit with the class, Donovan slips out to go to the bathroom. Moments later, Mr. Del Rio enters the classroom with Dr. Shultz, who has come to the school specifically to meet and thank Katie. She notices that Dr. Shultz believes her brother is in the classroom, and no one corrects him. She sees Donovan poke his head into the room, see Dr. Shultz, and disappear again. The class shows their work to Dr. Shultz. He begins “glancing impatiently at his watch” when Noah starts explaining his breathing technique (115). Noah encourages him to watch it on his YouTube channel, Youkilicious. Wanting Donovan to show Tin Man to Dr. Shultz, Mr. Osborne asks if Donovan has left for “one of his extended bathroom breaks” (115). Dr. Shultz says he will meet Tin Man another time and excuses himself.
Katie goes to the boy’s room to find Donovan and asks him why he hid from Dr. Shultz. He tells her everything. He has been hiding out at ASD because of the Atlas accident and trying desperately to fit in. Katie gently points out that the teachers are going to notice, and he confesses that someone cheated for him during his retest. She suggests he come clean with Dr. Shultz, but Donovan tells her he is worried about creating problems for his parents, who already have so much to worry about. Katie feels a new respect for her brother for being aware of “anybody besides himself” (117). She tells him she will confer with Brad and find a way to explain what happened to Dr. Shultz.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Unmasked, Dr. Shultz, IQ: 127”
On his way back to his car, Dr. Shultz feels something is not right. He wonders if it is simply that ASD unnerves him. Though “gifted programs are an essential resource for a school district,” they “attract so many know-it-alls!” (118). However, it was not the students that bothered him but what Mr. Osborne said about a student being “on another one of his extended bathroom breaks” (118). If a student at ASD is so unmotivated as to “kill time in the bathroom,” he should “step aside in favor” of students who will not squander their opportunities (118). He returns to ASD and asks a secretary to page the principal. As he waits, he looks up Noah’s YouTube channel and sees the video of Tin Man exposing Ms. Bevelaqua’s underwear. At the end of the video, the camera pans to Donovan. Dr. Shultz immediately recognizes him as the “nameless face” that “had starred in [his] wildest nightmares” (120).
Chapters 16-19 Analysis
Ms. Bevelaqua narrates Chapter 19, titled “Unforgiveable,” which echoes Noah’s observation about her earlier in the novel: she did not forgive Donovan for accidentally exposing her underwear. She is determined to prove that he cheated on his retest. Her investigatory interviews with students, presented as short scripts, appear in Chapters 17, 20, 22, and 24. Her first interview, in Chapter 17, is with Donovan. She attempts to frighten him by alluding to the severity of cheating, but he uses this to his advantage, demonstrating his social savvy. He points out how unrealistic it would be for such high achievers to risk their academic careers to help him cheat. Ms. Bevelaqua remains a static character throughout the novel. She criticizes her fellow teachers and ASD’s administrators for putting too much stock in the IQ test. Yet she, too, has prejudices that prevent her from appreciating the ways Donovan humanizes his ASD classmates and helps them achieve balance between intellectual achievement and social and emotional connection.
Chapter 18 chronicles Katie’s growth through the bond she develops with the gifted students. Previously, she had been as dismissive of them as the Daniels, calling the gifted kids brainiacs and nerds and scolding Donovan for putting them before his old friends. As her pregnancy progresses, bringing physical and emotional discomfort, Katie appreciates the students for their enthusiasm and earnest engagement. What began as a blackmail project evolves into genuine mutual regard between Katie and the students. She learns to value their intelligence, and they appreciate watching a human life develop first hand.
In Chapter 19, a central question of the novel thus far—how and when Dr. Shultz will find Donovan—is resolved when he visits ASD to thank Katie for allowing the class to follow her pregnancy and comes face-to-face with Donovan. The slow reveal heightens the tension as Dr. Shultz gradually realizes something is off then returns to the school to follow up on his hunch. Dr. Shultz’s self-absorption and impatience cause him to lose track of the initial slip of paper bearing Donovan’s name in Chapter 2, to cut off his secretary just as she is about to utter Donovan’s name in Chapter 11, and to leave ASD prematurely. He is so singularly focused on catching Donovan that he fails to consider there may be more to Donovan than mindless pranking.
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