This thoughtful, wry story is about two girls--a "punk" and a "prep"--who find themselves facing each other in a peer-counseling program and discover that they have some surprising things in common.

Ally has been smart enough to fool a lot of smart people. Every time she lands in a new school, she is able to hide her inability to read by creating clever yet disruptive distractions.  She is afraid to ask for help; after all, how can you cure dumb? However, her newest teacher Mr. Daniels sees the bright, creative kid underneath the trouble maker. With his help, Ally learns not to be so hard on herself and that dyslexia is nothing to be ashamed of. As her confidence grows, Ally feels free to be herself and the world starts opening up with possibilities. She discovers that there’s a lot more to her—and to everyone—than a label, and that great minds don’t always think alike.

One hundred years in the future, Government Observers roam the classrooms of average learners, looking for the rare gifted learners still left in the general population. One gifted child, who has been carefully coached by his mother to appear average, is unaware that his abilities have been documented by an Observer for years, until he is tricked into showing his mathematical strengths. He is devastated to receive a letter requiring him to test at The School for Gifted Potentials, but he cleverly sabotages the tests and is prepared to leave, only to discover that his mother has abandoned him at the school she has raised him to fear. During his one week orientation, as he undertakes an enlightening journey of self-discovery, he uncovers a secret about his mother's past that leads him to question everything that he once believed.

Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She's spent years trying to teach David the rules from "a peach is not a funny-looking apple" to "keep your pants on in public" -- in order to head off David's embarrassing behaviors.

But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a surprising, new sort-of friend, and Kristi, the next-door friend she's always wished for, it's her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?

"Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?" Dozens of children respond to this peculiar ad in the newspaper and are then put through a series of mind-bending tests, which readers take along with them. Only four children--two boys and two girls--succeed. Their challenge: to go on a secret mission that only the most intelligent and inventive children could complete. To accomplish it they will have to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, where the only rule is that there are no rules. But what they'll find in the hidden underground tunnels of the school is more than your average school supplies. So, if you're gifted, creative, or happen to know Morse Code, they could probably use your help.