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The View from Saturday

by E L Konigsburg

The View from Saturday Cover

ISBN13: 9780689817212
ISBN10: 0689817215
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Only 1 left in stock at $3.50!

Awards

Winner of the 1997 Newbery Medal.

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

HOW HAD MRS. OLINSKI CHOSEN her sixth-grade Academic Bowl team? She had a number of answers. But were any of them true? How had she really chosen Noah and Nadia and Ethan and Julian? And why did they make such a good team?

It was a surprise to a lot of people when Mrs. Olinski's team won the sixth-grade Academic Bowl contest at Epiphany Middle School. It was an even bigger surprise when they beat the seventh grade and the eighth grade, too. And when they went on to even greater victories, everyone began to ask: How did it happen?

It happened at least partly because Noah had been the best man (quite by accident) at the wedding of Ethan's grandmother and Nadia's grandfather. It happened because Nadia discovered that she could not let a lot of baby turtles die. It happened when Ethan could not let Julian face disaster alone. And it happened because Julian valued something important in himself and saw in the other three something he also valued.

Mrs. Olinski, returning to teaching after having been injured in an automobile accident, found that her Academic Bowl team became her answer to finding confidence and success. What she did not know, at least at first, was that her team knew more than she did the answer to why they had been chosen.

This is a tale about a team, a class, a school, a series of contests and, set in the midst of this, four jewel-like short stories — one for each of the team members — that ask questions and demonstrate surprising answers.

Synopsis:

Four students, with their own individual stories, develop a special bond and attract the attention of their teacher, a paraplegic, who chooses them to represent their sixth-grade class in the Academic Bowl competition.

Synopsis:

Did Mrs. Olinsky choose the four members of the sixth grade Academic Bowl Team, or did they choose her--and one another? Four stories-within-in-a-story, interspersed with the ongoing narrative of the team's triumphant march to the state championship, introduce each member of the team in his own her own voice, and bring the dynamics of the group into focus.

Synopsis:

The four sixth graders on their paraplegic teacher's enormously successful Academic Bowl squad are more than just teammates brought together by chance. They call themselves "The Souls". Their individual life stories unfold in four jewel-like short stories that are woven together into a novel that is "glowing with humor and dusted with magic...a stunning quartet of harmoniously blended voices". — Publishers Weekly, starred review

About the Author

E. L. Konigsburg is the only author to have won the Newbery Medal and be runner-up in the same year. In 1968 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the Newbery Medal and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was named Newbery Honor Book. Almost thirty years later she won the Newbery Medal once again for The View From Saturday. She has also written and illustrated three picture books: Samuel Todd's Book of Great Colors, Samuel Todd's Book of Great Inventions, and Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's. In 2000 she wrote Silent to the Bone, which was named a New York Times Notable Book and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, among many other honors.

After completing her degree at Carnegie Mellon University, Ms. Konigsburg did graduate work in organic chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh. For several years she taught science at a private girls' school. When the third of her three children started kindergarten, she began to write. She now lives on the beach in North Florida.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 4 comments:
pm26, July 17, 2007 (view all comments by pm26)
this is a great book
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(2 of 33 readers found this comment helpful)
josher2468, May 13, 2007 (view all comments by josher2468)
This book was good, but I got lost with all of the flashbacks and forshadowing. This is an OK book to read for teens and adults.
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(15 of 33 readers found this comment helpful)
crowyhead, March 27, 2007 (view all comments by crowyhead)
LOVED this! I picked it up because a) I love Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankwiler, and b) because it concerns the members of an Academic Bowl team, and I spent most of middle school and all of highschool taking part in such nerdly pursuits.

Konigsburg deftly weaves together the stories of five characters: the Academic Bowl team members, Noah, Nadia, Julian, and Ethan, and their teacher/coach, Mrs. Olinski. There's no plot summary that can do the book justice, because the plot is just a very small element in the actual story, which is about bravery and friendship. The book's also wickedly funny -- Konigsburg, as usual, never missing an opportunity to poke fun at officious figures of authority.

A lot of the reviews on Amazon.com question whether this book actually speaks to the children that form its ostensible audience. It's a good question; it's really a very sophisticated book, and the four sixth-graders are most unusual and wise beyond their years. I don't think it would appeal to all children -- but I don't think the Newberry is really about choosing a book that will appeal to everyone. I think it will find its own dedicated audience who adore it in the same way many of us adored From the Mixed-Up Files. I definitely would have loved it when I was in sixth grade.
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(25 of 38 readers found this comment helpful)
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780689817212
Author:
Konigsburg, E. L.
Publisher:
Aladdin Paperbacks
Author:
Konigsburg, E. L.
Location:
New York, NY :
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Friendship
Subject:
Classics
Subject:
Children's 9-12 - Fiction - General
Subject:
Social Situations - Friendship
Subject:
Social Situations - General
Subject:
Schools
Subject:
School & Education
Subject:
Teacher-student relationships
Subject:
Physically handicapped
Subject:
Contests
Subject:
Physically handicapped -- Fiction.
Subject:
Situations / Friendship
Subject:
Social Issues - Friendship
Copyright:
Edition Description:
B102
Series:
Jean Karl Books Paperback
Publication Date:
February 1998
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
Children/juvenile
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
176
Dimensions:
7.60x5.30x.49 in. .27 lbs.
Age Level:
08-12

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