The View from Saturday

My feelings about this book are conflicting. This is a children's award winner and I am learning very quickly that award winner does not always translate into great. This book started out slow but picked up with the chapter about sea turtles although even that seemed cliche and a little too save-the-world-by-being-green to make this a timeless book. The characters in the story are 6th graders and as the general rule is that children read books where the characters are a couple years older than they are, I thought it should be appropriate for my 3rd and 5th graders. I personally, did not think that the overused references to puberty would be appreciated by my children and I took issue with several other references as well, such as referring to a dog as "obviously male" and using a noose as their academic team logo. In the end, the story was cute and a little endearing to read as an adult, but I really find it hard to believe that children would enjoy this book. To prove my point, I started reading it to my kids and they all rebelled against the book in the first chapter. I think it I could get them to sit for it, they might actually enjoy it in the end, but they are so turned off by the beginning that I don't know if that will ever happen.