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Books by Carol Gorman
Dork in Disguise by Carol Gorman
Gorman, Carol. Dork in Disguise. HarperCollins, 1999. ISBN 0-06-024866-1; 0-06-024867-X (lib bdg); 0-06-440891-4 (pbk).




ALA Booklist said Dork in Disguise was hilarous. Kirkus Reviews said it was a "funny tale meant to snag those who care about cool and those who pretend they don't."  Read the other books in the Dork series: Dork on the Run and Midsummer Night's Dork.
Dork in Disguise

by Carol Gorman
A novel for young readers.
From the Breakfast Club at Lugoff-Elgin Middle School, Lugoff SC.

"I have to say that I really enjoyed the breakfast club this past week.  Mrs. Barbara Partin was the host, the book we discussed was "Dork in Disguise" by Carol Gorman.  We had a panel of "Expert Dorks" that included Dr. Frank Morgan, Mr. Dan Matthews, Helen Partin and Sylvia Blackwell they all proved to be quite knowledgable in dorkdom (is that a word).  Each was deserving of being crowned "King of the Dorks" however Dr. Frank Morgan came out on top."
Jerry Flack was a dork but this new school in a new town would give him a new start. He'd be a cool kid. All summer he had spent his time studying all the right magazines, getting hair gel, making his clothes look just right -- and now he was ready to be the cool kid he knew he was.
Not too long into the school year he finds himself fighting the urge to put his glasses back on and to top it all off he is dating the wrong girl. Will his new classmates find out that he is really a dork? And does Jerry really care?
Comments and Reviews:
"The 2002 Mark Twain Award winning title with 5,018 votes is an amusing look at middle schoolers being themselves. Who among us doesn't remember our adolescent years and desperate attempts to change ourselves so that we could be cool? Jerry Flack finds out that it's okay to be himself--a self-proclaimed dork--in Carol Gorman's fun, inspiring book with kid-appeal - Dork in Disguise."-- From the text of the announcement of the 2002 Mark Twain Award winner made by Pam Thomeczek at the Reader's Award Banquet--during the annual spring conference of the Missouri Association of School Librarians on April 15, 2002.

    "Hilarious novel, wonderfully constructed and beautifully paced." -- Booklist

    "If Bill Nye the Science Guy ever inspired a novel, it is this one about Jerry Flack, the sixth-grade science whiz who reinvents himself as one of the cool kids at his new middle school. The book gives realistic attention to the preteen school scene. Gorman also works in some way-cool science facts that come to life in Jerry's science project: a hovercraft built from a vacuum-cleaner engine. Go ahead and encourage kids to try this at home." Recommended. -- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

    "Humor keeps the plot jumping, yet the novel's resolution is admirably restrained. A breezy, enjoyable book." -- The Horn Book

    "Wonderfully accurate novel. Gorman not only knows how to set up a good story, with dialogue that is neither trite nor unnecessarily brazen, she also understands, or never forgot, the social structure of pre-teen cliques." -- Washington Post


Connections to Make

Jerry Flack makes a hovercraft using a vacuum-cleaner engine. 
  • If you can devise a method for making a hovercraft, write the directions.
© 2007-2009 Carol Gorman
All rights reserved.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa USA