Archive for February, 2009

My new favorite recommendation to kids is the book The View from Saturdayby E.L. Konigsburg.  For those of you familiar with her other books, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is the other Newbery Award winner of hers.  Nearly 50 years later, she is still on top of her game!  I was so amazed and enthralled by her story-telling skills in The View from Saturday and I shouldn’t have been so surprised.

The story is centered around the district Academic Bowl and how four students, Noah, Nadia, Ethan, and Julian, and their teacher, Mrs. Olinski, found each other and learned how to be better people.  One thing that makes the characters so enchanting is how each are accidentally involved in each other’s lives.  Noah ends up being the best man at Nadia’s Grandfather and Ethan’s Grandmother’s wedding.  Julian rides the bus with Ethan, and invites everyone to tea, where they become best friends and thereafter call themselves The Souls.

That year The Souls end up in Mrs. Olinski’s sixth-grade class, where they end up choosen to participate in the district academic bowl.  Mrs. Olinski doesn’t know her precise reasons for choosing those four.  Her choices are explored throughout the story and it is clear by the end that each person brings to the group something special.

I love that the reader gets to realize how each person is different but each one is important to the whole.  It sends such a great message of acceptance and interdependence.  Each of us has different strengths and when our weaknesses get to be too much, others can step in with their strengths to create a more cohesive whole.

While a relatively easy read, the depth of the story as well as its complexity makes for a lively narrative.  The book not only touches on some very important issues of acceptance, it also allows the reader to evaluate how they can help in their own ways.  It seems almost fortuitous that I read The View from Saturday when I did during this time of national change and potential.

I make a point to read the Newberry winners as well as the honor books.  In 2008, the Newberry Award winner was Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!.  Before I read it, I was expecting it to be like previous medieval stories like The Midwife’s Apprentice and Catherine Called Birdy.  I couldn’t have been more mistaken!   It was fresh and different and written in a different style than typical Newberry winners.

In the forward, the author, Laura Amy Schlitz, explains her different approach was because of her acting camp.  Her experiences leading and writing for the camp showed her that each child and actor wants to be the leading role.  Children do not fully appreciate the old adage: “there are no small parts, only small actors.” So the Schlitz set to work writing enough one-acts for all her small actors.  The result was Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!

What is most remarkable is that Schlitz manages to create resonate and passionate characters who each have their own voice and distinctive rhythm.  The setting of this story is a typical medieval village.  Each story or one-act is one of the different people found in the village.  From the Lord’s son to the tanner’s apprentice and the run-away, each voice shares their distinct role in the village.  Because this book was originally inspired by kids, all the characters are kids themselves.  Therefore, the stories are outstandingly relateable.

Additionally, Schlitz articulates real problems kids face in the guise of medieval history.  Everything is factually based and throughout researched.  Within each story, there are little footnotes explaining the history behind an action or event.  Amongst the one-acts are little vignettes explaining different trades and lifestyle as a sort of mini history lesson.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised.  I enjoyed reading all the different stories and I even acted out a few on my own in the privacy of my own room!  It was refreshing and different enough that for those who are interested in the middle ages this is a perfect book for them.  For those that don’t have an interest, it is great for kids who love to act.  And for those that don’t have an interest in the middle ages or acting, it is still a great read full of all the triumphs and struggles that kids experience themselves, despite the 800 year gap.