The novel Schooled is written by Gordon Korman and has lots of fascinating characters. The main character is Capricorn Anderson who has grown up on a commune his whole entire life and suddenly forced to go to a public middle school. A commune is a place where a lot of people live together. His grandmother Rain has been Cap’s teacher, friend, and most of all his mother.

When Cap arrives at his new school he faces a lot of confusing situations that he has not experienced including the most popular kid in school who happens to be a very mean bully named Zach Powers. Cap is an innocent boy who must adjust to his new life in the real world, including the new school, and his foster home with Sophie a girl who is not so happy about Cap’s appearance

When Capricorn first comes to Claverage Middle School he is treated with absolutely no respect. He is humiliated and teased every single day. Every year the kids at Claverage nominate the biggest dweeb in the grade for class president so they could make fun of him in assemblies and meetings. On the first meeting Capricorn promises to learn the name of every kid in school, which seems ridiculous at first. He surprises everybody by actually learning all their names by the time of the school dance. The bully Zach Powers is very frustrated because he wants Cap to fail at everything.  Instead, many kids start to like him.

Because Cap grew up in a commune he does things that typical kids don’t, including Tai Chi in the front lawn every morning. First everyone thinks he is crazy, but soon people join and find it really enjoyable. This shows that being different is not always a bad thing.  

A scene in the book that changes Capricorn’s life at school is on the busride home one day. The kids are bullying him by throwing lit matches at him. The driver of the bus suddenly falls off the seat and has a heart attack in the middle of driving. No one does anything until clever Cap takes the wheel of this big school bus and rushes the bus driver to the hospital. This is a very exciting chapter because there is a lot of action and the other students get to see a new side of Capricorn Anderson. When Cap gets to school the next day he is suddenly the most popular kid in school instead of the least popular.

Another big scene is when Cap does a really nice thing for his foster sister Sophie. She doesn’t like Cap because she cares too much about her image and how other people see her. If Cap is around he will embarrass her so she is mean to him. Cap is so nice that he gets the bracelet her dad gave to her engraved, because her unreliable dad never does.  After some clues, Sophie figures out that the bracelet was not engraved by her dad, but by Cap.  This really brings the two of them closer together, because Sophie realizes what kind of kid Cap really is.

Cap is confident and a little bit clueless at the same time. He is confident because he is his own individual and does not care about what anyone thinks. For example he wears shoes made out of cornhusks. He is clueless because he doesn’t understand when he is being made fun of. When he is locked in the library by Zach Powers and his friends, Cap does not care and just sits there.

I have enjoyed Schooled very much. I have because it has  a lot of action. I would rate Schooled 5 stars.      *