February 3, 2026 by HarperCollins
E ARC Provided by Edelweiss Plus
Donovan has had a wild ride ever since his adventures in Ungifted and Supergifted, and after the robot his group has made, Heavy Metal, hands out middle school diplomas at the Academy for Scholastic Distinction, he gets a big surprise. His friend Noah (whose IQ is 206) has not only graduated from middle school, but high school as well. He's been awarded a scholarship to study at Wilderton College, and has been offered placement in a summer computer studies program to get him used to campus life. The college even invites him to bring a friend, which doesn't make Donovan happy. He's planned a summer of video gaming and sitting around, but since his parents want to take a trip to celebrate their 25th anniversary, he is sent packing. Noah's experience is being chronicled by C.T. Beldner as a journalism thesis, and Donovan has been offered a job as a counselor in training for the Explorers program at the college, which serves primarily the children of professors. Chapters highlight different perspectives, so we hear how Noah struggles to grow his elderberry bushes and crushes on 19 year old classmate Arlene, how Donovan rather enjoys living in a dorm but has to deal with escape artist Jalen during camp, as well as occasional input from head counselor Raina, frat members Darius and Edward, and others. After the school mascot, Porquette, eats Noah's elderberries, the boys panic that these will make the large pig sick, and hide her in their bathtub. This causes a sense of gloom to be cast over the campus. Noah is working on an artificial intelligence model called AIDAN, and is obsessed with the campus secret society, to which he thinks Darius and Edward belong. Noah completes a lot of household cleaning tasks for them as "initiation", but when he finds they are not really members, starts his own secret society, the Fibonacci Society. Through a series of mishaps, this becomes the Society of the Curly Tail, celebrating the missing Porquette. As the summer winds down, how will Noah and Donovan be able to tie up all of their loose ends? There could be another book after this one, following Donovan at high school and Noah at college.
Strengths: This was another goofy romp from Korman, reminiscent of his McDonald Hall (Bruno & Boots) series. The college setting allows him to give his characters a lot of freedom without killing off any of the parents. I loved the observation that the campers in the Explorers program were about five years younger than Donovan and Noah, who were about five years younger than the college students. That's a great perspective! Middle grade readers will absolutely believe that the two kept a pig in their dorm for three weeks, and didn't bathe the whole time because Porquette was in the tub! Noah having a crush on an older woman was interesting, and Raina's perspective as interesting. Jalen's disappearances were a mystery, and the solution was fun. I was glad to see that Noah was majoring in computer science, even if he was creating an artificial intelligence model. Even though Ungifted came out in 2012, it still gets read, so there is an audience for this new adventure.
Weaknesses: This strained my credulity as an older person. Where did the boys put all of Porquette's poop? What did they feed her? Their room didn't smell? How did Jalen's disappearance go unnoticed by the adult counselors? And most of all, why was Noah being sent to college even though he wanted to go to high school? We have college credit options in my district, so Noah should have been able to attend high school at least part time, and still work on college classes. Young readers won't notice this, but I wasn't bothered by a lot of things.
What I really think: I'll definitely purchase this one, since Korman is wildly popular in my library. I normally love humorous romps, but I must have been in a bad mood when I read this. This did seem more realistic than Sumner's Schooled, also set on a college campus.
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