Worth reading!

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," a book I thoroughly enjoyed as a kid.

"Saturday" is written in a somewhat unusual style. Chapters alternate between narrators -- an omniscient 3rd person and each of the four young main characters. If you've read Paul Fleischman's "Seedfolk" -- one of my all-time favorite books -- you're familiar with a similar kind of format. I, for one, found this "mechanism" to be entertaining; somewhat like fitting pieces of a puzzle together until the full picture -- the full "View" of the story -- came together.

The book is about four students chosen for their school's academic decathalon competition. Each has his/her own set of personal and family issues to deal with, in addition to dealing with their fellow teammates. As they win competition after competition and get ever closer to the finals on Saturday, their perspectives and prejudices -- their views! -- about themselves and others change.

I enjoyed "The View From Saturday" and would recommend it to 10-12 year-olds.