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Copywork
About This Passage
This passage will teach the writer how a first-person narrator can simultaneously tell the truth and dodge it. Notice how Donovan describes his own troubles in a way that names them honestly while also softening them — the verbal trick of admitting fault in the same breath as making fault feel less bad. This is one of the oldest moves in first-person comic narration (Huck Finn does it constantly, and so do the narrators of Catcher in the Rye and Diary of a Wimpy Kid), and Korman is using a version of it perfectly suited to the rhythms of contemporary middle-grade speech.
Open Chapter 1 of Ungifted. Find the passage where Donovan first introduces himself in his own voice — the sentences where he tells the reader who he is, what his reputation is, or how the world tends...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell the chapter, then identify the single sentence that does the most work in establishing Donovan's voice for the rest of the book. Defend your choice with reference to specific craft details.
Discussion Questions
- Korman opens his book with a first-person voice that asks the reader to LIKE Donovan before he has done anything to deserve being liked. What specific techniques does Korman use to win the reader over to a kid who is, on paper, a habitual troublemaker? Identify at least three moves in the opening pages that recruit the reader's loyalty.
- Donovan is set up as a kid who is constantly underestimated by adults. The chapter wants us to see this as unjust. But is there a part of Donovan's behavior that EARNS the underestimation? Where is the line between being unfairly labeled and being accurately described in ways the labeled person doesn't want to admit?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
highly respected because of a long-established reputation, often guarded by gatekeepers who decide who is allowed in
Item 2
having to do with the routine paperwork of an office — used here for the kind of small administrative error that can change a person's whole future
Item 3
accepted only on a trial basis, with the understanding that the acceptance can be withdrawn — a status that asks a person to perform their belonging
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Critical Thinking
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