The View From Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg

One of my favorite novels growing up, The View From Saturday looks at “The Souls”, a group of sixth graders (Nadia, Ethan, Noah and Julian) who compete as a team in the Academic Bowl for their school under the supervision of their paraplegic teacher Mrs. Olinski. The Souls are underdogs, becoming state champions over even the seventh and eighth grade teams in their own school and across the state. The most interesting feature of the novel is the narrative structure; the book is a compilation of stories with each chapter featuring the story or experience of one member of the team, half told from the point of view of the character and the other half told in the more traditional novel style of third person narration. The stories show how the characters lives overlap and are connected, and also give us insight into the diverse personalities that make up the ultimate team of brainiacs.

My favorite character in the story is Ethan, because I can identify with his struggle to escape the shadow of his big brother who seems to be practically perfect in every way. Growing up I had a lot of the same teachers as my sister, and so I often felt like I had to live up to her when I entered their classroom (by the time parent teacher conferences rolled around my parents always heard how different we were, and it didn't always seem to be a good thing in their opinion). In the book Ethan finally has a teacher that doesn't know his brother, and it serves as an opportunity to finally let his personality shine through without feeling like he is letting anyone down. Ethan is an introvert, but his silence doesn't mean that he isn't bright or that he doesn't think about things. To the contrary, Ethan is always thinking and is pretty brilliant in my opinion, and when he starts hanging out with the Souls he comes out of his shell and is able to finally share everything he has always had to offer but never had the chance to in the past.

I would recommend this book for seventh and eighth graders, and I would probably use it as a tool to teach different narrative structures and voice, since the novel is told from multiple points of view and by several different speakers.

*This book was the 1997 Newbery Medal Recipient