About this title: Four unlikely students are selected by their teacher, Mrs. Olinski, to form the sixth grade team for their school's Academic Bowl. During a series of competitions, the individual talents of team members Noah, Ethan, Nadia, and Julian are used to propel the team to the state championship. Meanwhile, the team's success re-instills feelings of ...
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Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780689829642ISBN:0689829647
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 163 p. Jean Karl Books (Paperback). Audience: Children/juvenile. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780689817212ISBN:0689817215
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Light edge and corner wear. No marks. Tight binding. Some damage on back cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 176 p. Jean Karl Books (Paperback). Audience: Children/juvenile. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780689817212ISBN:0689817215
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Excellent condition. Very light edge and corner wear. No marks. Tight binding. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 176 p. Jean Karl Books (Paperback). Audience: Children/juvenile. read more
Description: Fine. 0590129015 Excellent condition Soft cover book, clean pages, No creases to spine, this book is Near NEW! Shop & Save With US. read more
Description: Fine. 0590129015 Excellent condition Soft cover book, clean pages, No creases to spine, this book is Near NEW! Shop & Save With US. read more
Description: Fine. 0590129015 Excellent condition Soft cover book, clean pages, No creases to spine, this book is Near NEW! Shop & Save With US. read more
Description: Very Good. 0590129015 Great condition Soft Cover book, clean pages, mild creases to spine, light edge/corner rubs, this book is GREAT! Shop & Save With US. read more
"Its a 4.5 - I like the perspective gained from each character's autobiographical chapters. There is a line or two that may be considered ripe for a more mature audience, say, mid-teens, although the protagonist kids are sixth graders. The kids' thoughts reveal them as savvy, and aware that their generation is not as respectful to elders as the ones before - a (sad) sign of our times. However, the kids are themselves not disrespectful. I have two favorite messages from this novel. Kindness begets kindness, particularly demonstrated by Julian to Noah and the academic team kids to Mrs. Olinsky. Also, Julian's altruistic motives to help Mrs. Olinksky (with her courage, self-esteem and to gain respect in the community) are wonderful lessons for every reader. This novel won the Newbery Medal."
"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."
"This book is a gem...it would best be read by a younger YA audience, but the story is simple and perfect. It details the happenings of an academic meet with Mrs. Olinski's super squad of adolescent braniacs...however, they are much more than this. The novel flip-flops between the actual academic meet and the story of each individual student, looking to answer the question posed to Mrs. Olinski at the beginning of the book: "Did you choose them, or did they choose you?" Konigsburg takes the reader on a personal journey through each life, and does so from the perspectives of 4 uniquely wonderful students. No wonder it was an award winner when it came out. :)
I wouldn't really use this in my class, since I teach 11th grade, but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless...it might be easily adaptable to a middle school class, especially since the characters are in middle school themselves. Plus, I think younger YA readers would REALLY like the book...it is full of humor and heart...yay!"
"SUMMARY Mrs. Olinski comes back to teaching after a tragic car accident in which she was crippled and lost her husband, and she's set to the task of choosing a class academic team. The four students she chooses come to be known as The Souls, and each of them and Mrs. Olinski is challenged and changed for the better through the experience, as they come to be a local phenomenon. They're the first group of 6th graders to ever win the Academic Bowl, but that's not the real significance to the story. . The real story is how they won the heart of Mrs. Olinski, and what happens as they all go on proverbial journeys, intertwining where they came from and where they're all going, and how it all revolves around High Tea.
EVALUATION Through multi-voiced narrative, flipping back and forth between the five quirky main characters, Konigsburg's story tells the same story recursively, from different points of view, and so we understand it in several different lights. However, even though the characters were quirky, and Konigsburg did not rely on stereotypes, there was still an unbelievable quality to them. I think that the book can be inspiring and motivating to a young kid who might not be the most athletic or the most talented in sports or other extra-curriculars, because this book shows that the underdogs with the unusual families or the off-beat personalities can still find a forum in which to shine. It also shows young people (and teachers, too) how to have a healthy, personable, appropriate relationship/friendship with a teacher, and how those relationships foster whole communities of learning. This is a real root-for-the-underdog kind of book, and it is written in a style I very much enjoy, and rewarding for its message of the importance of kindness and of friends, but there were some small failures in addressing believability-some of it was just a little too incredible to assign literary truth."
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