Stars: ****
This book was read for the Newbery Project (1997) and the Initials Challenge.
I read this right after I read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler which was a while ago so I don’t remember very much.
Summary: In this novel, four sixth grade children, Noah Gershom, Nadia Diamondstein, Ethan Potter, and Julian Singh form a group they call “The Souls”. The academic bowl is coming up, and their paraplegic teacher, Mrs. Olinski, chooses them to represent their school, Epiphany. The Epiphany team beats even the seventh and eight graders in the Academic Bowl and becomes the state champion.
The book is written very differently from other books in that it goes back and forth between the competition and the past. Each child is given their question and then it goes back in time to show us how they know the answer to that question. Very interesting way to do it. Three of the four ‘stories’ were very interesting and the fourth was pretty good. How it’s all tied in together works well too. I think this is very worthy of the Newbery medal.
Also, throughout the book, many of the questions from the Academic Bowl are given and at the back of the book you can find the proper answers to all the questions mentioned within.
About Kathleen
