As a teacher of academically gifted kids, this book pretty much jumped off the shelf at me. It is the story of Donovan Curtis, a middle school kid who might be described as "gifted" at finding ways to get into trouble at school-- he's not a bad kid, just a typical preteen who doesn't think through things very carefully and enjoys getting a laugh out of his friends. When, by a crazy mistake, Donovan's name appears on the list of those newly accepted to the district's school for highly gifted students, he doesn't know how or why, but he goes. The gifted kids at the Academy for Scholastic Distinction are a bit stereotypical, but, except for one or two, are pretty believable. At first, no one can see much about Donovan that will be able to keep him at the academy except for the fact that he appears to have passed the admission's test, and the test is "never wrong". Soon, despite his lack of academic success, Donovan's new classmates begin to realize that he has other qualities that they admire and that can help them in ways that formulas and books can't. Donovan starts to see that some of his ideas about gifted kids might not have been so accurate either.... Filled with humor and a good message about the unique contributions each person can make, Ungifted is an excellent upper elementary/ early middle school read.