The Unteachables

Kiana's first day at Greenwich Middle School doesn't turn out exactly as planned.  After narrowly escaping a plume of vomit from her stepmother's new baby and nearly getting creamed by a giant truck driven by a 13 year old, she's left to fend for herself.  Somehow she is shuffled into SS8 without ever actually registering for school.

After a moment's hesitation, she decides to just go with it.  She's only here for a couple of months while her mom is on location filming a movie.  She quickly realizes SS8 is no normal class.

First, they are in the same room with the same teacher all day long.  Second, the kids are roasting marshmallows over a trashcan fire when she walks in.  These are the unteachables--six kids the school is just warehousing until they become the high school's problem next year.

Their teacher?  Mr. Kermit, a man who used to be a great teacher until his career was ruined 27 years ago by a cheating scandal.  It wasn't his fault, but he bore all the blame.  Now he spends his days wherever he's assigned drinking coffee and doing the crossword puzzle.

At first, students and teacher ignore each other, but when Mr. Kermit actually stands up for one of the unteachables, opinions change.  Maybe he's not so bad, and maybe they aren't so unteachable after all.

Gordon Korman's new book is the well-paced school story we've come to expect from him.  While some parts of the story do require the reader to suspend a good deal of disbelief, it's a good message about judgment, forgiveness, and overcoming stereotypes.