The Report Card is a children's novel by Andrew Clements

Andrew Clements

Andrew Clements is an American author of children's books. Clements grew up in Camden, New Jersey and Springfield, Illinois, United States,. As a child, he enjoyed summers at a lakeside cabin in Maine where he spent his days swimming and fishing and his evenings reading books...

, first published in 2004. The story is narrated by a 5th grade girl, Nora Rose Rowley. Nora is secretly a genius, but does not tell anyone for fear that she will be thought of as "different."

Plot summary

The whole story is mainly about the life of Nora Rowley. Since a young age, Nora has been secretly hiding her extraordinary intelligence from her parents and teachers, and still trying her best to do badly in school to prove to herself as "nothing more than average." She shows no concern over it and gets grounded by her parents. However, after researching things over the Internet in the school's library, Nora accidentally exposes herself and is forced to tell the truth to the librarian, Mrs. Byrne, who is fascinated by her intelligence. Then, she meets Dr. Trindler, who gives her an I.Q. test, on which she receives a score of 188. After that, Nora unintentionally throws a tantrum before her classmates, her talents finally uncovered. She is forced to discuss and give good ideas during class, though she has trouble doing so.

Things take a turn when her results get released. She has to face Ms. Hackney, the principal of Philbrook Elementary, to explain herself for scoring a zero on three tests. She explains that she dislikes the tests for being too knowledge-based, but her actions soon cause a great commotion in school when her best friend, Stephen, starts a campaign to call upon all students to follow her act and start a rebellion - to score zero in the next examination. In the end, after a school meeting, Stephen and Nora apologize on behalf of the involved students before the whole school. She rejects any offer from her parents and the school to promote her to middle school for higher education, as she prefers to stay normal.

Characters

Nora Rose Rowley: The main character of the story and secretive genius. Her appearance is described as being short with reddish-blond hair. Researching is her favorite hobby. She was so intelligent by kindergarten, that she taught herself to understand Spanish by watching the Univision channel and to read National Geographic. Nora loves astronomy, Latin, archaeology, and soccer. Her mother describes Nora as thoughtful, kind and caring. She has two siblings: Ann and Todd. Her best friend is Stephen.

Stephen: Nora's best friend. He has been struggling with school for a long time. His self-confidence is poor due to low grades. His favorite subject is English. He has never said one mean or angry thing.

Ms. Hackney: The principal at Nora's school. She is one of the people in the meeting to explain her low grades.

Mrs. Byrne: The librarian at Philbrook Elementary School. She was one of the first to find out about her unusually high intelligence and played a large role in carrying out her plan.

Mrs. Lake: Her Teacher.

Dr. Trindler: The guidance counselor.

Ms. Noyes: Nora's Social Studies and English teacher.

Mrs. Zhang: Nora's Science and Math teacher.

Ms. Prill: Nora's art teacher.

Mrs. Card: Nora's music teacher.

Mr. McKay: Nora's PE (gym) teacher.

Mrs. Rowley: Mother

Mr. Rowley: Father

Todd: Brother

Ann: Sister