Customer Reviews

Schooled

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I came across "Schooled" at a local bookstore and picked it up. Two minutes into the novel I was hooked. With a tall glass of iced coffee, I sat down and read the entire book. The plot is simple--a 14 year old boy, Capricorn, is raised on a commune by his grandmother, a hippie he calls Rain. He is home schooled by Rain as the two of them are the only ones left on this commune/farm. Cap has little contact with the outside world, has never watched TV, handled money, or had a friend his age. When Rain falls while picking a plum, she is hospitalized. When he is temporarily placed in the home of a social worker with a teenage daughter--who hates him--and attends a local middle school, look out! Innocent and gullible child walks into the jungle of a middle school campus, creating many interesting events

The story is humorous, touching, and at times aggravating. Capricorn becomes the butt of all jokes, the campus geek. How he handles his exposure to the corrupt world is a wonderful story. Somehow he manages to change those around him yet retain his own values.
While the ending was a bit contrived, it didn't take away from the plot. I highly recommend this one to all--but especially to middle school boys who are made to feel insecure if they don't conform to the expectations of the middle school culture.

I was under the impression that this book was about the sixties, when I read the other reviews posted here. Some people included quotes from the quintessential figures that were so effective and prominent in the 1960s, i.e. the Beatles. But, when I read "Schooled" by Gordon Korman (I got it for my thirteenth birthday) it wasn't really like that. It was about how the sixties affect us today, and how they defined a great deal of American society today, such as cynicism towards the government.
"Schooled" has an interesting and impossibly entertaining premise. Capricorn (Cap) Anderson is a homeschooled hippie kid living in a deadbeat 1960s eco-commune, Garland Farm, with his grandmother Rain. His grandmother has raised him and taught him all that she believes to be important, and tells him to be wary of the world that they are nearly disconnected from, save for trips into town for supplies. Rain keeps him close so the outside world will not taint him.
So, as you can imagine, when Rain falls from a tree (she was picking plums) and breaks her hip and has to undergo six weeks of physical therapy, Cap is utterly and completely lost, innocent and unknowing of the normal middleschool hierarchy that exists in Claverage Middle School (dubbed C Average by students). He stays with a social worker, Mrs. Donnelly, who actually herself lived on Garland Farm at one time, running barefoot in peasant dresses and doing farm chores. Mrs. Donnelly takes Cap to live with her and her daughter, Sophie, at her home.
It goes from there with Cap being terrorized by popular students, but, despite their obviously harmful intentions and downright meanness towards Cap, he never tries to get back at them, never gets angry or frustrated, only confused ("Why can't we all just get along?"), which becomes a endearing and pitiable quality to Cap.
A hillarious aspect of the book is Cap fascination with Sophie Donnelly's favorite show, "Trigonometry and Tears", a tragic teen drama, and becomes involved with the fictional characters lives. Sophie could not care less for Cap: he scares away mostly everyone and disrupts her perfect, if not mundane, typical high school life. AND he won't keep his split ends on his side of the couch.
"Schooled" is told in Cap's voice, and multiple students of C Average voices, as well as Mrs. Donnelly and Sophie Donnelly. The storytelling in fluid and compelling; it is very hard to put down. The story ends in a way that I had not expected and happily as well; which satisfied me.
I had never read any of Gordon Korman's books until now, and I look forward to some more excellent and creative works that reflect how people effect each other. This book will appeal to both boys and girls, I think.
Great book!

My son and I chose this as a title for our mother/son book club. It's the story of Capricorn Anderson, a boy who has been homeschooled his entire life. When his grandmother is involved in an unfortunate accident at the commune and won't be able to care for him for several weeks, he has to move in with another family and attend the local public middle school.

Our sons are all tweeners; and although I don't think any of them liked the book in the beginning, they ended up liking it. All of the boys had to get the hang of how each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character. Various events in the story were great starting points for our discussion though, and they also wanted to talk about the parts of the story they each thought were funny. For me, it almost seemed like the middle school version of Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl.

I love this book! it is an awesome book about a hippie named Capricorn(or Cap) who is homeschooled by his grandma, Rain. And, well, I don't want to spoil the story for you, but I didn't thnk I'd like this book, but my mom showed it to me at the book fair, and I bought it, and I love it (THANKS MOM!!!)
YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK, IT'S AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My daughter was reading this in class last year. She was so happy about it and telling me funny lines in the book. The story line sounded great to me. I read it and loved it. I can see Disney or ABC family making a movie from this book (same company I think). What a great story for kids these day. It has self love, respect for self and other, family values, thinking of others, looking deeper than the surface, and never giving up. Great book!

I read this book after reading about it on a Homeschool blog: http://blogaramabingbong.com/?p=4. I found it funny, and entertaining an easy read. Not sure if a guy raised on a fading hippy commune could be as gullible as Capricorn Anderson is made out to be, but I just love the idea of it and how his tie-dyed ways crept into the hearts of the kids at C Average Middle School.

I would give this book a 1 star because it had noooo action! I like a book that keeps my heart beating, wondering what on earth will happen next, but this book... well that only happened once. For like, 2 pages. Then back to same old, same old. Another day at school being weird. Also, the ending was kind of a letdown, the grandma just completely changed, which was very unrealistic. I did however love the message about not judging, and not caring about what others think of you, and not needing so many materialistic things, and being kind to others, even when they might not be kind to you. Also, this book was a little funny at parts. I didn't mind reading it but I don't think I could have enjoyed reading it if it was any longer, towards the end, I was counting how many more pages I had left.

Gordon Korman is a popular children's book author, and usually reliably entertaining to read. In this case, the subject matter did not amuse me as much as it might have.

Thirteen-year-old Cap Anderson was homeschooled, but not in the sense that most homeschooled children are today. Cap is an only child, being raised by only one adult, his hippie grandmother, on a small farm far outside a small town, without a TV or any communication with the real world. The closest similarity I could think of would be some sort of pioneer child in the 1800s, but without any brothers or sisters. He can drive a car, understand a Foucault pendulum, and practice tai chi, but he doesn't have a phone. He doesn't know about computers or locks or checkbooks or TV shows. His character is obviously written to be the most unusual, weirdest kid you could think of.

If you can accept the premise that any teen today could be raised totally isolated from any kind of technology, and without any interaction with other kids, you'll enjoy reading about how very confusing life could be for that teen if he were suddenly thrown into a normal home and school when is grandmother is hospitalized. Amusing, but really hard to believe, and just a bit insulting to normally homeschooled students who are technologically savvy and accustomed to human interaction with other kids.

It annoyed me because the humor in the book came from laughing at Cap's ignorance of the world. Kinda sad.

Hi, just to tell you I'm my mom's son (Not Laurie) so now that we have that straight, let's start the review. The only person in Cap's (Capricorn's) life is Rain, His hippie grandma that is picking plums, and breaks her hip. She has to go to the hospital and have her hip fixed. I twill take about 2 months. Since cap has no other family members, he has to live with a man that lives in a nearby city with his cranky daughter Sophie. Zach Powers, the popular kid on campus can't wait to make him the bigged laughingstock at Calverage (Nicknamed C Average by students) middle school. There is an old tradition that the biggest wierdo gets elected for class president. When he gets elected, Cap wonders why. When he gets told to meet a secret lover in sotrage room #00347 - or something like that, he thinks that it's real. But when his bus driver has a heart attack, and cap drives the bus to the hospital, and nearly gets arrested, He becomes more popular than Zach Powers. Everyone joins him to practice tai-chi (a type of martial arts) and when Zach Powers pulls another stunt to get back at Cap, it is more clever than you would think...

As the mother in another review pointed out, this is not necessarily a book to buy for home-schoolers who are searching for a role model. But young children who attend school will greatly appreciate the book's humor and fast pace. I really like the fact that parts of this book are told from the bullies' perspective and other parts are told from the victim's perspective. This book manages to make a strong anti-bullying message without being preachy.