From the Publisher
Humorous, relatable, and full of heart, Korman’s gift for understanding the middle school mind is on full display.” — School Library Journal
“Managing a large cast of characters with ease, Korman creates a comedy of compounded errors leading to a public disaster and, strangely enough, a happy ending.” — Booklist
“Another chortleworthy outing from Korman.” — Kirkus Reviews
Praise for MASTERMINDS: PAYBACK: “Packed with surprising twists, high-speed chases, and plenty of near misses.” — Kirkus Reviews
Praise for MASTERMINDS: PAYBACK: “Korman’s action-packed caper series comes to a satisfying close…with a masterful balance of humor, thought-provoking questions, and adventure” — Booklist
Praise for MASTERMINDS: CRIMINAL DESTINY: “A thrilling and fun series perfect for middle grade adventure seekers” — School Library Journal
Praise for MASTERMINDS: CRIMINAL DESTINY: “Cat-and-mouse chase scenes deliver thrills…Volume 3 can’t get here soon enough.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Praise for MASTERMINDS: CRIMINAL DESTINY: “Packed with enough thrilling action and suspense to keep the pages turning...[a] highly entertaining series.” — Booklist
Praise for MASTERMINDS: “A terrific page-turner. Full of unexpected twists and revelations. Buckle up.” — James Patterson
Praise for MASTERMINDS: “Masterminds takes readers on a wild ride with terrific humor, a surprising mystery, and characters you can’t help but root for.” — Brandon Mull, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Fablehaven series and the Five Kingdoms series
Praise for MASTERMINDS: “[A] compelling, twisty mystery . . . [with] a truly gratifying payoff” — Booklist (starred review)
Praise for MASTERMINDS: “This tense, fast-paced story will have readers racing toward the cliffhanger ending.” — Publishers Weekly
Praise for MASTERMINDS: “A fresh premise, good pacing, surprising twists and engaging characters all combine to make this a series worth following.” — Kirkus Reviews
Praise for MASTERMINDS: “This unique and action-packed story is filled with twists and turns that readers will not see coming. A wonderful start to what promises to be a thrilling series.” — School Library Journal
Praise for UNGIFTED: “Touching, without being overly sentimental, Ungifted is a gem for readers looking for a story where the underdog comes out on top.” — Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)
Praise for UNGIFTED: “From its lovable-robot jacket art to its satisfying conclusion, this will please Korman’s fans and win him new ones.” — ALA Booklist
Praise for UNGIFTED: “Donovan has a goofy kindness that charms characters and readers alike … The message is tolerance, and Korman expertly and humorously delivers it in an unpretentious and universally appealing tale.” — School Library Journal
Praise for UNGIFTED: “Funny and insightful.” — Publishers Weekly
Brandon Mull
Praise for MASTERMINDS: “Masterminds takes readers on a wild ride with terrific humor, a surprising mystery, and characters you can’t help but root for.
James Patterson
Praise for MASTERMINDS: “A terrific page-turner. Full of unexpected twists and revelations. Buckle up.
Booklist
Managing a large cast of characters with ease, Korman creates a comedy of compounded errors leading to a public disaster and, strangely enough, a happy ending.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Praise for MASTERMINDS: CRIMINAL DESTINY: “Cat-and-mouse chase scenes deliver thrills…Volume 3 can’t get here soon enough.
Booklist
Managing a large cast of characters with ease, Korman creates a comedy of compounded errors leading to a public disaster and, strangely enough, a happy ending.
Booklist (starred review)
Praise for MASTERMINDS: “[A] compelling, twisty mystery . . . [with] a truly gratifying payoff
Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)
Praise for UNGIFTED: “Touching, without being overly sentimental, Ungifted is a gem for readers looking for a story where the underdog comes out on top.
ALA Booklist
Praise for UNGIFTED: “From its lovable-robot jacket art to its satisfying conclusion, this will please Korman’s fans and win him new ones.
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Praise for MASTERMINDS: CRIMINAL DESTINY: “Cat-and-mouse chase scenes deliver thrills…Volume 3 can’t get here soon enough.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Praise for MASTERMINDS: CRIMINAL DESTINY: “Cat-and-mouse chase scenes deliver thrills…Volume 3 can’t get here soon enough.
James Dashner
Praise for MASTERMINDS: “It’s hard to express how much I loved Masterminds without spoiling it. Real characters that make you laugh, twists that genuinely surprise, a plot that reveals itself perfectly. Another instant classic by one of my favorite authors.
Stephanie Garber
Another chortleworthy outing from Korman.
School Library Journal
12/01/2017
Gr 4–7—Laughs abound in Korman's satisfying sequel to Ungifted. Donovan is the same goofy, impulse-driven kid that got put into the TaG class instead of suspension by a superintendent's slip of the pen. His instinctive dive into a runaway truck averts a disaster but then precipitates a series of mishaps when his nerdy friend Noah, a downwardly mobile transfer from a magnet school, decides to take the credit for Donovan's heroic act in order to protect him from the wrath of his ex-Marine brother-in-law. Told from the point of view of several of Donovan's classmates in both his regular school and the magnet school that he still attends once a week for the robotics team, Korman shows the varying perceptions of heroism among Donovan's broadly drawn community: the unsympathetic cheerleader Megan, the lacrosse-playing entitled bully, the nerds on the robotics team, the rigid authoritarian brother-in-law who is helpless when dealing with a new infant, and the plastic television host on the track of a news story. Korman expertly holds readers' attention with a fast-paced plot culminating in a climactic denouement at the robotics meeting. Eventually, the true hero is unmasked, relationships are healed within and outside his family, and once again kindness and tolerance win the day. VERDICT Humorous, relatable, and full of heart, Korman's gift for understanding the middle school mind is on full display. —Jane Barrer, United Nations International School, New York City
Kirkus Reviews
2018-01-22
In the sequel to Ungifted (2012), Noah Youkilis gets himself kicked out of the Academy for Scholastic Distinction to see what it's like at regular middle school.Noah's best friend, Donovan Curtis, can't understand why such a genius would come to Hardcastle Middle School on purpose. He would be a target, a "wedgie looking for a place to happen." Noah is 4 feet 11 inches tall, the size of a fourth-grader, with the posture of an "oversize praying mantis." He has a 200-plus IQ, a grating voice, and a "rocket-scientist vocabulary." But Noah feels that "being a genius isn't hard.…What's hard is being normal." He's never had to work to get grades before, so now he goes out of his way to pick activities he's bad at so he can improve at something, such as wood shop and cheerleading. But when Donovan saves a runaway truck from crashing into Megan Mercury's house, Noah takes credit for the heroic feat and nearly loses Donovan as a friend. As in Ungifted, Korman uses multiple first-person points of view to reveal characters' responses to Noah and to show how characters change when supergifted Noah becomes superhero Noah. The narrative moves swiftly and even becomes madcap toward the end as Donovan regains a friendship and becomes a hero in his own right. Characters are white by default.Another chortleworthy outing from Korman. (Fiction. 10-14)
