Gifted

Gifted
By Beth Evangelista
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781561454600

Fiction


George Clark would be the first to tell you that he is gifted. He is about the smartest eighth grader in his school and has science-fair ribbons to prove it. For someone so smart, his social skills are not as balanced. Most of the time he is protected from bullies he annoys with his loud mouth since his father is the school principal. However, he is going on a class trip without his dad. The journey to the camp is relatively uneventful; even the football team isn't picking on him for a change. George thinks that just maybe the guys are coming around. They talk him into the game of smearing mustard all over the teacher chaperone; however, George gets set up big time and has to do chores for punishment. To retaliate, he locks the Bruise Brothers in an unused bunker–then he's glad to be around the teachers. When the campers have to evacuate, things take a terrible turn when George is attacked and left behind. He finds shelter and, in the storm, finds one of his tormentors severely injured. George helps him and, in the process, has a change in attitude. George’s life makes a change that he never expected. This is a great story with an uplifting moral.