The protagonist, Nora Rowley, is a fifth-grade genius. From a young age, she is aware that her intelligence brings unwanted attention, so she quickly learns to hide her abilities by doing what many kids do to fit in: observing and copying her classmates. Over the course of the novel, Nora learns that she acts differently from her classmates simply because her nature makes her different. After putting her plan to fail on purpose into action, she realizes, “Fact: I was the only kid in the whole school worrying this way about grades and tests and competition. All the other kids were being normal. And I had to face that fact, too: I was not a normal kid” (128). She realizes that even while advocating for her classmates, she didn’t understand what they needed until she considered their developmental levels.

Nora slowly discovers that she wants people to know her for her whole self, but she still doesn’t want them to treat her differently. Mrs. Byrne is the first person to learn her secret, and Nora wishes she could guarantee that everyone would react like the levelheaded librarian: “It struck me how good it was to have someone else know the real me.