E. L. Konigsburg - The View from Saturday

Pros: Great ideas, very fun read

Cons: nothing

The Bottom Line: A great book for anyone to read, especially someone who is into gameshows.

Review: A 1997 Newberry Award winner was a definite pick for this book. The View From Saturday, by E.L. Konigsburg, is classic Konigsburg work. She was written other great stories. But, ..Saturday is without doubt her best.


In the story of four...

Pros: heart warming, well written, age appropriate for all

Cons: none that I can think of

Review: The View From Saturday is one of the most well written books that I've read. It doesn't just let us into the mind of one character, or narrator, but rather, into four very unique characters. The interesting thing about View From Saturday is the...

Pros: well-written, believable, enjoyable

Cons: none that I can think of!

Review: Actually, this book deserves many more than just 4 stars, but it is the story of 4 seemingly individual youngsters whose only connection is their hometown. However, they are all connected via more historical and family roots than would be evident...

Pros: Abnormal, reliable characters.

Cons: the time jumps may be disconcerting to some people

The Bottom Line: I would recommend it to those between ten and thirteen, because the book won't be as relevant or believable to anyone above or below that age.

Review: Nobody thought that Epiphany Middle School would ever win the Academic Bowl. Not in a million years. It just never could happen. Especially not with a team of four sixth graders. However, every time a question is asked, the team seems to know the answer,...

Pros: Interesting style/Entertaining story

Cons: Reader needs to be patient for the full "view" to come into focus

Review: When I learned that E.L. Konigsburg won her second Newberry Medal for "The View From Saturday", I was anxious to read the book. Her first such award came thirty years earlier for "From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler,"...

Pros: Not your average juvenile work, very thought provoking.

Cons: Not your average juvenile work, very thought provoking, I don't believe half would "get it"

The Bottom Line: Makes a great reading group book. It's so unaverage for a juvenile book that the average reader really has to think. My kind of book!

Review: I'll admit it. When I first started reading The View From Saturday, I was not impressed. The first character was an average preteen boy that was annoyed because he had to send a thank you note to his grandparents for his stay in their retirement ...

Pros: relates to several different types of people

Cons: jumps around a lot from character to character

Review: I really enjoyed this book. It was the first one that I had read by this author and was pleasantly surprised. As an education major, I could see this book being a great resource in the classroom. The storyline could help relate to bullies, various...

Pros: Some people might find politically correct, right-on, trendy topics a positive aspect. I didn't.

Cons: It may have won the Newbery, but I wasn't impressed.

The Bottom Line: The novel is disjointed, choppy, and painfully stylistic. The characters are unbelievable and unappealing. Konigsburg has created some of the worst dialogue I've ever read in any genre.

Review: At the risk of incurring calumny from readers on this site by criticizing yet another sacred cow of children's literature, I have to say that I thought E.L. Konigsburg's The View From Saturday was little more than a self-indulgent exercise in...

Pros: Decent writing

Cons: Someone forgot a coherent plot, real characters and any writing above 'decent'

The Bottom Line: Apparantly non-coherent plot cryptic references = Newberry award. Nothing silly like good plots, strong writing, or any enjoyable element.

Review: I've read this book multiple times. I've seen the Newberry award on it. I've tried to reconcile the two, without success.

This book is about a group of 4 sixth graders and their teacher in a trivia contest, going up to national levels. Or...

Pros: The end.

Cons: Everything but the end.

Review: I read this book for a project for school, which meant I had to read it. I regret that. In my class, some kids thought it was so bad that they stopped reading it while I read it and just got the information from me. The View From Saturday was a book I ...