New Children's Fiction
Gifted by Beth Evangelista.
Sometimes brains aren't everything.
George R. Clark is gifted.
Mentally, he's light-years ahead of his classmates. His parents worship
him, and his teachers adore him. But socially, George is at the bottom
of the curve. Most of his classmates avoid him—if he's lucky. Until the
Bruise Brothers, the intellectually challenged members of the school
football team, decide they want George to pass a test of their own
design.
Only the fact that George's father is the school
principal has saved him in the past. But his father isn't going on the
eighth grade science field trip, and George has a feeling it's going to
be open season on dorks. Suddenly thrown into a crash course on human
nature, without his father to protect him, the most intellectually
gifted kid in the eighth-grade might actually learn something before
the end of the trip . . . if he survives it.
This witty novel provides a different perspective on bullying and the battle of brains versus brawn.
Small Steps by Louis Sachar.
Three years after being released from Camp Green Lake, Armpit is trying
hard to keep his life on track, but when his old pal X-Ray shows up
with a tempting plan to make some easy money scalping concert tickets,
Armpit reluctantly goes along.