Module 4- The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg

Konigsburg, E. L. (1996). The view from Saturday. New York, N.Y: Atheneum Books
    for Young Readers.

BOOK SUMMARY

Sometimes, the thing that makes someone fit in is finding the others who don't seem to fit in either.  This seems to be the case of 4 students and their teacher in The View from Saturday. Noah, Nadia, Ethan, Julian, and even Mrs. Olinski begin the book, each of them wavering in their confidence on how, exactly, they fit into the class.  Ultimately, though, they discover that each one of them has something special to offer, something that, combined with the others, makes them indomitable.

Impressions and opinion of the book- very important

Looks can be deceiving, and assumptions unfounded.  Konigsburg manages to weave together multiple stories that somehow connect her characters in a way that highlights their self-discovery and independence while still maintaining their ultimate dependence on one another.  Each character has a piece of the puzzle, and just as the team cannot win their competition without the unique experiences of each member, the reader cannot fully comprehend what is happening without knowing all of their stories.  They start out adrift, but by the end, they become The Souls.  

The timeline is fluid, interlacing back and forth, as each character brings forth things that have happened from their own perspectives.  Each character "meets" one another multiple times, and the reader discovers new ways they are connected each time a new voice chimes in.  The style has potential to be confusing and disjointed, but Konigsburg manages to keep the words and stories flowing seamlessly, using the style to surprise the reader more than once.

Characters in the novel learn to cherish their own struggles and differences, while also admiring the differences of others.  They learn to stop and listen to one another, and while the underdog coming out on top often leads to a cheesy ending in novels geared toward the middle grade reader, Konigsburg manages to draw the reader into the lives of each character, causing them to cheer each success as one of their own.

Full-Text Review

Admirable acts, challenging ideas, and grace notes positively festoon this superb tale of four sixth graders and a paraplegic teacher forming a junior high Academic Bowl team that sweeps away the competition. The plot is composed of interwoven puzzles. What prompts Mrs. Olinski to choose Noah, Nadia, Ethan, and Julian for the team over the usual overachievers and honor students in her class? What do they know about her, themselves, and each other that puts them so precisely on the same wavelength and gives them such complementary knowledge and experience? Each has a tale to tell, in the course of which all four witness acts of kindness and respect that teach them to find those feelings in themselves and others. In wry prose filled with vivid imagery, information, and often oblique clues, Konigsburg takes her team through bonding, drills, and a series of contests as suspenseful as any in sports fiction; the children and Mrs. Olinski's public triumph mirror inner epiphanies of rare depth and richness. The large cast, looping plot line, and embedded stories with different narrators require careful sorting, but the effort is eminently worthwhile, and Konigsburg kindly provides answers at the end.

       Kirkus (1996). [Review of the book The view from Saturday, by E.L. Konigsburg]. Retrieved          from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/el-konigsburg/the-view-from-saturday/

Library Use

Perspective can sometimes be a difficult thing to teach to students, but Konigsburg does a beautiful job of sharing situations from multiple vantage points, as the main characters all get a chance at some point throughout the story to narrate what is happening.  Using a chapter or two from the novel as a mentor text and then allowing the students to try imitating this technique, either writing about one of the characters from the story or creating their own situation in which there are multiple witnesses to the same scenario might help them to gain a better grasp on perspective.  Where do their characters view from?

It might also be a good connection to inform students of other books written in such a style, with multiple perspectives given (ie- Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea or Wonder by R.J. Palacio).  This way, they can choose to reinforce the technique, if they wish, by reading more examples of it.