Room 117 is the last classroom in the building. It is the classroom for the left-over students and the place the superintendent sends Mr Zachary Kermit. Mr Kermit is close to retirement after 30 years of teaching. The superintendent is keen to get rid of Mr Kermit because if he retires the school district will have to pay him a pension long into the future - Mr Kermit comes from a family of long livers. Mr Kermit is also haunted by the past when he was accused (wrongly) of aiding a kid - Jake Terramova - with cheating on the National Aptitude Test. The Superintendent will NEVER forgive Zachary Kermit.
Class SCS-8 (Self-Contained Special Grade 8) is a dumping ground for failures plus Kiana.
"They're kids you've given up on. They had their chance in sixth and seventh grade and now you're just warehouseing them until they can be the high school's problem."
"How bad can these Unteachables be? Behaviour issues, learning problems, juvenile delinquents? ... Bad attitudes? The kid hasn't been born with an attitude that's half as bad as mine at this point. Face it, the Unteachables can only hurt you if you try to teach them. I have up on teaching anybody anything decades ago."
Characters:
- Mr Kermit - the teacher, nickname Ribbit
- Kiana - who is a bright and compassionate girl in the wrong class or is she?
- Parker - a boy with a heart of gold and a driving licence (provisional). He also has dyslexia and so far no one has helped him with this
- Aldo and Elaine - kids with serious anger issues
- Rahim - great at art but sleeps all day in class
- Mateo - a boy with an obsession for tv and movie characters
- Barnstorn - talented football player now on the bench with a broken leg
- Emma Fontain - the teacher in the room next door. She is enthusiastic, kind and wise beyond her years
- Jake Terramova - now owns a successful car dealership. Jake truly wants to repair his past errors and help Mr Kermit find forgiveness
- Dr Thaddeus - school district superintendent
- Mrs Vargas - school principal
Read these reviews for more plot details:
Why did I pick up this book? Why did I thoroughly enjoy this book?
I have read books by Gordon Korman (Canadian author) in the past.
I really enjoy books which use multiple voices which change with each chapter and give the reader different views of the same incident.
The bright cover caught my eye.
I have been reading Middle Grade books with recent publication dates - this one is 2019.
After reading The Unteachables you might want to pick up Where the Red Fern grows so that you can understand when Aldo says: "It was Ribbit who showed me that teachers aren't always the enemy, even when they make you do work, or yell, ... If it wasn't for Ribbit, I never would have heard of Where the Red Fern grows, which I'd be done with by now if we didn't drop everything to work on the science fair. I can barely picture my life before I knew about Billy, Old Dan, and Little Ann, who feel like real people to me - except Old Dan and Little Ann, who are dogs."
I would follow this book with these:
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