Pizza and Pages Book Club: Week 5
A Book Discussion Project by Ryann Uden for LIS404LE, Spring 2005
The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg
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This Newbery Award winner is a story of connections and special friendships. Four sixth graders have come together and formed their own special group that meets every Saturday for tea. Their pasts have all intersected in unexpected ways and now they have been chosen to represent their school in the academic quiz competition. As this team competes and wins in contest after contest, people begin to question their teacher, a paraplegic who has just returned to teaching, how she chose the team. She is not sure of the answer to this question, but when she discovers it she finds out some important things about herself as well.
1. Was it easy or difficult to follow this story since it changed time and point of view throughout? Who do you think is the "main character" that this story is about...or maybe you think there is more than one?
2. Gifts are frequently given in this story. Can you think of any gifts that keep on giving long afterwards? (Noah, presents at wedding, all presents to Julian, etc.) What about the different gifts that each character brought to the team?
3. Silence is represent in several different ways for each character. Here is a quote from Ethan: "Sometimes silence is a habit that hurts." (p. 105). Can you think of how each character used or was affected by silence? Noah (lack of ), Ethan (doesn't speak up until with the Souls), Nadia (silence makes her mad, secrecy) Julian (silence is power when ridiculed).
4. Why do you think Ethan and Julian were still quiet on the buses and not acting like they knew each other?
5. How do the Souls help Mrs. Olinski just like the turtles?
6. What do you think of Mrs. Olinski's view of mischief vs. malice?
7. How did the Souls know that Mrs. Olinski almost picked Ham the bully for the team?
8. Julian's dad, Mr. Singh, tells Mrs. Olinski that "The Souls have all returned from a journey, Mrs. Olinski...How can you know what is missing if you've never met it?" What does he mean by this and what journey did each of them take?
9. Let's read the last chapter of the book aloud. What does it mean that the Souls choose Mrs. Olinski?
Konigsburg, E. L. (2000). The View from Saturday. Thorndike Press Large Print Young Adult Series: Thorndike, ME.