The Unteachables

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Author(s)

Gordon Korman

Publisher

Balzer + Bray

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

January 08, 2019

ISBN

978-0062563880

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The Unteachables are a notorious class of misfits, delinquents, and academic train wrecks. Like Aldo, with anger management issues; Parker, who can’t read; Kiana, who doesn’t even belong in the class—or any class; and Elaine (rhymes with pain). The Unteachables have been removed from the student body and isolated in room 117.

Their teacher is Mr. Zachary Kermit, the most burned-out teacher in all of Greenwich. He was once a rising star, but his career was shattered by a cheating scandal that still haunts him. After years of phoning it in, he is finally one year away from early retirement. But the superintendent has his own plans to torpedo that idea—and it involves assigning Mr. Kermit to the Unteachables.

The Unteachables never thought they’d find a teacher who had a worse attitude than they did. And Mr. Kermit never thought he would actually care about teaching again. Over the course of a school year, though, room 117 will experience mayhem, destruction—and maybe even a shot at redemption.

Editor reviews

2 reviews

THAT teacher with THAT class

December 10, 2018

Overall rating

5.0

Plot

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Characters

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Mr. Kermit is entering his 30th year of teaching, and he's already put in for early retirement. He started his career full of grand ideals and enthusiasm, but a testing scandal over 25 years ago sucked the life out of him, and he spends his days handing out worksheets and doing the crossword while drinking coffee from a huge cup called "the toilet bowl". In order to push him to quit even earlier, the evil superintendent assigns him to a special class with a handful of students who are "unteachable". These include Elaine and Aldo, who both have anger management issues, Parker, who has severe dyslexia, and Rahim, who is artistically inclined but often sleeps in school because his father has band practice in the garage until late. Enter Kiana, who is staying with her father and his new family while her mother works on a movie, and who blunders into the class by accident and stays because she is intrigued. Next door, a perky new teacher, Emma Fountain, alarms Mr. Kermit because she is the daughter of his former fiancé, and she is filled with all sorts of warm and fuzzy classroom plans. She brings in Jake Terranova, who started the cheating scandal but who is now a successful car salesman. He invites the class to visit his dealership and repair shop, and the class starts to take off and actually learn things. Some of Mr. Kermit's old fire returns, but when the superintendent makes the numbers look like he is ineffective, his job is on the line. The students try to rally and enter a project for the science fair hoping to save their now beloved teacher, but they are not successful. Will something happen to save the day?

Good Points

This had a nice ensemble cast, and portrayed students struggling with different issues realistically. Kiana was an especially fun character. I really did adore Mr. Kermit, and could completely sympathize with his burnout (I'm only in year 20, but I can still understand!), and the backstory with him and Ms. Fountain's mother was sweet. The use of Mr. Kermit's car was particularly intriguing. Parker and his ability to drive on a provisional license to help with his grandmother and the family farm will be interesting to students.

Korman is a master of the funny scene. There are just enough to encourage the reader to look forward to them, and laugh hysterically when they are delivered, but not so many that the book takes on a slap stick feel that distracts from the serious issues. This is a balance that middle grade authors should really work to achieve! It's not easy to do, but Korman pops the scenes in so casually that it looks easy.
The Unteachables is a solid, funny novel with deeper issues and the true meaning of intelligence that will appeal to fans of Buyea's Because of Mr. Terupt, Palacio's Wonder and Hunt's Fish in a Tree.

Karen Yingling, Staff Reviewer Top 10 Reviewer 2014 reviews

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Unteachables was a disappointment

August 10, 2023

Overall rating

2.7

Plot

2.0

Characters

2.0

Writing Style

4.0

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N/A

The unteachables was dissapponting, that's for sure.
The idea of it was great one: Throw together a bunch of strange kids who can't do schoolwork. It got me sold and I decided to use my own money to buy it. However, the character developement is really bad. Mr. Kermit has no levels to him, except a person who's lazy and drinks a lot of coffee. Half the kids in the room don't even get perspective, not to mention the fact that barely nothing happened for the first part of the book. From reading Gordan's other works, I thought this would be a lot better.