I loved this book and would gladly put it on my classroom bookshelf except that I teach 10th graders, and it is really more appropriate for a 5th-8th grade level. The nontraditional narrative style really sets it apart from others of its genre. I mentally compared the structure of the read to that of Slumdog Millionaire...but this was written in 1996! So, while it may seem copycat, this actually came first. The current storyline takes place at an Academic Bowl with our main characters on the team, their teacher in the audience. A question is asked, and the story breaks and flashes back to one specific character, giving us not only the background on how he/she knows the answer, but also developing each character specifically and carefully. Then it returns to the Bowl, and starts again with a new character. Each tale builds upon the one before, gradually weaving together, unifying the story as a whole and developing characters. Each protagonist has a distinctive voice (although all of the children seem remarkably precocious for their age), endearing them in specifically individual ways. One thing that did trouble me, however, was Mr. Singh's clairvoyance. No, really, how DID he know? This was either a poor oversight of Konigsburg or an ill-placed stereotype. Other than that drawback, this book is a delightful tale and a definite recommendation for students grades 4-8.

I know that everyone has read "From the Mixed-up Files...", but I haven't. This was my first Konigsburg novel and I enjoyed it.

The characters were quirky and likable, the plot was well-crafted with plenty of unexpected connections and interesting twists. All-in-all, a nice piece of middle grades lit.

Update: After rereading with my kids, along with the Moving Beyond the Page curriculum, my 12 y.o. said, "It's over? But I really liked this book, even though I thought I wasn't going to." High praise, indeed.

The book "The View from Saturday" by E.L.Konigsburg was a very good book. This book was about a group of gifted children named Noah, Julian, Ethan, and Nadia that are all connected in a way that they didnt really know about. They were brought together by by a teacher named Ms.Olinski who had them make up a team for their highschool quiz bowl. The story basically tells us about the day to day problems that these children go through and how they are all connected. There is also conflict that goes on within the whole story which is that Ms. Olinski is unable to figure out why she chose these children for the quiz bowl team. By the end of the story Ms. Olinski figures out the reason she chose these children.

The setting of this story is greatly described in the book. We understand that setting in this book through the Characters immediate social group, which is the team that they belong to who is all gifted. We understand each of the characters through their description in each chapter. The plot of the story is very clear. We we have a set of gifted children who are part of a team that no one knows why. As the story rises Ms. Olinski is asked many times why she chose these children. That rises up to the win at the quizbowl making the children the champions. The falling action is when Ms. Olinski talks to Julians dad on the way home from the tournament which is the falling action. The resolution is when Ms. Olinski figures out why she chose these children. The plot of this story is that everything happens for a reason. These children were all brought together for a reason. This story is told in a third person point of view by a narrator. The characters in this story resemble people who would be in our reall world. The characters are gifted children which do appear in out schools and communities every where. The story is very believable because there are quiz bowls and gifted children are very bright individuals who could very likely win a quiz bowl. The plot is very believable as well, because from the reading you would never guess that Ms. Olinski could figure out why she chose these children for her team since she seemed so confused.

I thought this book was very good. It was a book that I enjoyed reading even though i thought that I wouldn't. I liked how that in the book the gifted children were portrayed as normal people. This shows children that gifted people are just like everyone else. This book really teaches a lesson and could be used in schools every where to help stop bullies. I could related this book to my life because there are times that things happen that I don't know why, but in the end when I look back I always see a reason for why things worked out that way.

Interesting book, not what I thought it would be. I will have to read more by Konigsburg.
This book jumps around between characters and timelines a bit, so, maybe some kids may find it frustrating to read. I felt like it took awhile to get into. Definitely a juvenile fiction book. After a few chapters it moves along fast enough. :)

I have long wanted to read this book and as life would have it, managed to read this book in one setting. It has about it a sense of mystery. Since it references Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, my guess is that it was a deliberate move by the author.

I really ended up walking away from this book with a quote from Monet in my mind:
"Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love."
I don't think I want to really dissect this book. I simply want to tell you what it is about and what I enjoyed about it.

This is the story of four student and their paraplegic teacher and their journey to the Academic Bowl. Each story is intertwined with community, family, and friendship. In the story it talks about how they come to know kindness in others before they know themselves. It is a theme weaved through the pages. Through the book you go from an academic challenge setting to memory regarding one of the characters. Through these memories, you get to see how each of the four students and friends, become a part of the Saturday Afternoon Tea.

I think this might be a little difficult for a 6th grader (which is the grade that the setting takes place in) to really comprehend. I think as an adult I wanted to see a deeper meaning in the reasoning why Mrs. Olinski chose the children she chose, but I almost believe the author wanted it a simple "just had a feeling" reason and left it at that. But now I am getting too far into dissecting the book so I will leave at this.

Enjoyable. I expect in a few years my children will enjoy it but at the present time I think it would go over my 10 year old's head.

Fact: this book was amazing!

Four 6th graders, Noah, Ethan, Nadia, and Julian, meet when they all join Ms. Olinski's 6th grade class. They are all complete opposites, and yet, something pulls them together. So, all three agree when Julian invites them to a tea party, despite how strange it seems.

The same force seems to attract Ms. Olinski's attention to the four students as the time approaches to choose her Acadimic Bowl team. Will these four pieces fit together in a strange yet powerful puzzle?

As usual with E.L. Konigsburg, this plot was so unique, and the characters were great. I loved watching the four lives intervene, and them become friends. The different flashbacks ran together beautifully! This middle grade book is an absolute treasure!

I first discovered this book in fifth grade. I reread it in sixth. And seventh. And eighth. I think it’s safe to say that I have read this book at least once a year, the question is, why? Why do I read about four sixth grades who compete in an academic bowl? Why do I read about four sixth graders who have tea every Saturday afternoon? Why do I read about four sixth graders who all have their own journeys? Why do I read about four sixth graders who discover a fundamental truth about life and choose to share it with others? Why does this book call to me and ask me to read it every year?

To be honest, I read this book every year attempting to discover the answer to all these questions. Every time I try to explain why I feel the need to read this book I feel like my answer isn’t complete, and so I read it every year trying to discover why.

This is a cleverly written book, with many different writing techniques and styles. There is a specific tone to every section that helps you as the reader connect and make connections on your own. The layout is a bit confusing and it took me until reread number three to really understand what was going on, but once you do the book just gets that much better.

But I don’t think I reread this book once a year because of the writing, or the stories, or the laughs, or the characters, or even the facts you glean from its pages. No. I reread this book once a year because those four characters, those young sixth grade characters discover a truth about life. They discover an attribute and they choose to share it with their homeroom teacher. And by sharing it with her they share it with me.

This is a book that upon first glance seems boring, and upon a deeper inspection doesn’t seem that much more interesting. But this book is so cleverly written that I discover new things, new tricks, new devices that the author employs to teach me, the reader, about her message. In fact, there are so many ways she does this that I reread it every year searching to discover all the things I missed. This book is innocent and deep with a poignant message about life and character. It doesn’t matter how many times I reread it, I am always the one who always feels full at the end of it. I hope that if you choose to read this book you discover the fullness and truth that each one of the characters discover in their view from Saturday.

Kids who see themselves on the fringe find friends in each other, overcome bullies, and receive the admiration of others. Throw in a touch of fantasy and mystery, and this story will be a hit with a slice of middle school readers.

There are quite a few characters mentioned with coincidental connections, more than I like.

Includes a few pages about the behavior and plight of sea turtles.

I love E. L. Konigsburg so anything she writes will get 5 stars from me. If I was recommending this to young readers, I would stick to 11-yrs and up. There are some subtle concepts that I don't think younger readers would understand. Although the main characters are kids, there is a strong adult presence too, in the character of the teacher. I wouldn't be surprised if adults appreciate this story more than children.

tAward Winning Author E.L. Konigsburg has stunned the literary world again with this subtly breathtaking novel; The View From Saturday. Following her novel that put her on the world map, (From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler) E.L. explains how there are rough diamonds in our everyday lives, how there’s always a chance of even the most unlikely happening. Through a very simple idea of an academic bowl, E.L. explains her points through the shocked, confused, chagrined, and even eerily calm narrations by each of the four characters. Raconteurs, Noah, Nadia, Julian and Ethan each tell the anecdote of how they came about their crucial answers during a crux in their academic bowl quest. An unlikely story of harmony between four characters who are peculiarly linked, The View From Saturday is perfect for those readers looking for a light, enjoyable read, yet one where you can also take away life lessons, along with a few general facts.
tSomething that really struck me about this book is when Noah retaliates against Nadia when she chooses the name for their ‘team’ (90). This strikes me because it was he along with the team who agreed to settle with whatever team name that Nadia had picked. It strikes me for it shows that there will never be a completely unanimous decision within a team of divergent qualities. This is almost a tautology: team of divergent qualities+idea= no unanimous decision. Yet, although it sounds like something that you don’t want, a team that always has different opinions is the most creative one. This is one key component of ‘The Souls’ that I believe allowed E.L. to develop each of their discussions. There was that choice of what kind of argument they would have. This was one of the key freedoms that enabled E.L. to put depth into the story.

tAnother part of the book that really struck me is when all four of the souls answer Mrs. Olinski’s final question to them with a very elegant and simple yes9160). This is very striking because it culminates the story with the first unanimous decision between the souls. The first statement that they are all in agreement about. This signifies that they are one, no longer a team of different opinions. It is practically the perfect ending because like an onion, there was an underlining layer in this book; a trend of how whenever an idea was presented to the souls, they would all argue. Therefore, when they finally came to an agreement on a particular statement, I was quite shocked. The way that E.L. uses her language in this passage flummoxed me too. For Mrs. Olinski asks the question “Did I Choose you, or did you choose me?”, then the children answer “Yes!”(160). Grammatically this is not correct, therefore it left me quite confounded as to what it meant. Leaving a striking imprint from this book.

tAnother part of this book that really left a striking imprint in my brain was when Julian Singh changes the words of a very vulgar sentence into poetry(73). This strikes me because those words were written on a leather book bag. Something which cannot be easily erased. Yet, Julian managed to come up with a brainchild sentence, and that would take a lot of skill and patience. E.L.’s description of this part exposed Julian’s true character. They also were words that helped her carve out a calm and happy demeanor about him, allowing the development of him as a character. This calm and happy demeanor also showed that he was not self-conscious, allowing him the ability to start his first tea party, and eventually, the ‘souls’.

I strongly believe that this is a five star book because of the layout, fluency. and technique that was used to execute this extremely simple idea. I would recommend it to any reader who has the capability to read it, for it will show you the truth of how “coincidences” may have not been coincidences after all. A must read for anyone, E.L. Konigsburg has shown that she has the soul.
t

I think I would have enjoyed this book much more if I had read it when I was the age of the children in this book. It was mildly interesting, but not totally engrossing for me, reading it as an adult. I guess mostly I failed to understand the raison d'être of this book. Most of the plot is backstory to explain the significance of the climax: a team of four students only in sixth grade are competing in the top level of a sort of knowledge bowl event. The back stories show us how the recent experiences of each of these students has coincidentally prepared them to correctly answer each of the questions posed during the competition, at least all of the ones we are made privy to. Each child's story is told one section at a time with short snippets of the competition thrown in here and there between them. I felt little sense of suspense as to the outcome of the competition, so the climax wasn't much of a climax at all. I also found it a little strange the sense of mysticism the "Souls" and their teacher seemed to feel about the forming of their group and participating in this competition together. I didn't know the cosmos was so concerned about who wins a middle school knowledge bowl, but apparently it is so.

All that being said, there were some things I did like. I liked that the stated objective of the Souls was to help their teacher. She was returning to work after leaving years earlier following a devastating accident which left her paralyzed, and though she is a capable educator, she was finding some issues not only with accessibility, but with students who were mocking and rude. I thought it was sweet that the Souls decided they would make it their personal mission to help her out. How many twelve-years-olds out there are that aware of others and take the initiative to do something about it all on their own? That was cool. I also liked that the quality that the teacher noticed in these four that set them apart from others was that they had a sense of courtesy that so many others their age did not. I enjoyed that brief bit in praise of an oft-forgotten virtue. If people come away from this book learning a thing or two about such values as these, maybe it does have a pretty good raison d'être.

This took me a little while to get used to. It confused me more than anything but then like Mrs. Olinski I finally understood all the strange things they were saying. The end lesson was really great and I wish that more people would have a journey with that end result.