Author E.L. Konigsburg made Newbery history in 1968 when her book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the Newbery, and her first book Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was runner up.  In 1996 she won the Newbery again, this time for The View from Saturday.

The View from Saturday tells the story of five unlikely friends–four sixth graders and their teacher Mrs. Olinski.  The structure of the book is different from many children’s books because it weaves five separate stories into one larger story about friendship.  The stories seems a bit disconnected at first, but characters appear and reappear and the stories become intertwined.

Noah tells the story of when he was best man for a couple of grandparents at a retirement community in Florida.  Nadia tell the story of the summer she saved baby sea turtles.  Julian tells about Nadia’s dog Ginger starring in Annie.  Ethan tells how they all became friends in the first place.   Their teacher Mrs. Olinski tells how four students won the state academic bowl.

Ethan’s story is my favorite.  Every day, Ethan makes a point of sitting in the back of the school bus and draping all his stuff across it so he doesn’t have to share his seat.  He’s been doing it forever (the one privilege to being the first on the bus every day), so he’s not happy when a new student, Julian, disregards this unwritten code and sits next to him.  Even worse, Julian is an oddball.  An East Indian boy fresh from an English boarding school, Julian wears shorts and knee socks and carries a leather satchel to school.  He is unfailingly polite, and no surprise,  he’s also an immediate target of ridicule.  Ethan doesn’t like all this disruption to his peaceful routine and tries to simply ignore Julian.

Ethan receives a mysterious invitation to tea at Sillington House, a local bed and breakfast inn.  The invitation comes in bits and pieces, hidden in books and written on scraps of paper.  Ethan knows the invitation is from Julian because Julian’s father is the proprietor of Sillington House, but Ethan has no idea who else is invited which adds to the mystery and excitement.  

Soon Noah, Nadia, Ethan and Julian have formed a secret club called “The Souls” that meets every Saturday for tea.  They barely acknowledge each other at school and no one knows of their friendship including Mrs. Olinski their teacher.  Mrs. Olinski feels drawn to choosing the four to compete on her academic bowl team but she doesn’t know why.  Julian in particular seems like such an outsider.

In the end, the four win competition after competition taking them all the way to the state championship at Albany and victory over an eighth grade team.  But sweetest of all is the friendship that blossoms between them.  In the midst of a sometimes hostile world, four kids and their teacher find a safe place at Sillington House, a place to be themselves and nurture each other–with kindness, empathy, and a generosity of spirit rarely seen in the halls of middle school.