Review Detail

Reader reviewed by mearley

Schooled is the story of Capricorn Anderson, a teenager who grew up on a Hippie compound run by his grandmother, Rain.  He's never met anyone his own age and he's been sheltered from the "evils" of the outside world.  When Rain is seriously injured and taken to the hospital, Cap ends up living with a social worker and attending the local middle school.  Cap knows nothing about the social structure of school, and is totally unprepared for the cruel jokes played on him.  However, his social ineptness ends up working in his favor, and before long the entire student hierarchy is turned upside-down.

I think reluctant readers will be drawn to this because of the very short chapters and the differing viewpoints.  However, the average 8th grader will not have enough background knowledge to understand the Hippie philosophy that Cap has grown up with.  (Unfortunately, they will probably most identify with the bully, Zach.)  Also, some of the pop culture references are dated even though the book is only a few years old: The students play a tape instead of a CD or ipod at their school gathering, and Tom Cruise is mentioned as the hot actor of the day.  (Trust me, today's 8th graders are not interested in Tom Cruise at all!)

Reprinted here with author's permission.