Popular Authors - Andrew Clements ~ A Week in the Woods

Book Cover Photo Source, Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Week-in-the-Woods/Andrew-Clements/e/9780689858024/?itm=1, accessed May 9, 2009.



Bibliography



Clements, Andrew. 2002. A WEEK IN THE WOODS. New York: Scholastic Inc. ISBN 043953108X



Summary

A WEEK IN THE WOODS by Andrew Clements is another great young adult book by this award winning author. Mark, a rich kid from New York, moves to New Hampshire after the renovations on their new home there are complete. His parents won't be with him, of course, they will be in San Francisco running a stockholders meeting. Leon and Anya, the gardner and housekeeper, will move with Mark and help keep and eye in him until they arrive. Mark is forced to leave his old school, Lawton Country Day School and will be attending Runyon academy in the fall as a boarding student. In the meantime, his parents have enrolled him in the local elementary school, Hardy Elementary, where he finds it difficult to fit in with the other students.

In the beginning, Mark's snobbish attitude distances him from the other students and makes the teachers not like him. Especially Mr. Maxwell who can't stand rich people or "their lazy, spoiled kids." Eventually, Mark changes his attitude and actually starts to make some friends. The teachers also begin to warm to him, except for Mr. Maxwell. As the annual fifth grade camping trip approaches, Mark decides that this will be his opportunity to prove himself to Mr. Maxwell and show him that he is more than just a spoiled rich kid. But just as things start to get better, Mark is caught on the trip with a camping tool that includes a knife, something they were specifically asked not to bring. It is not really Mark's fault and he tries to explain, but Mr. Maxwell won't listen and decides to send him home. Before this can happen, Mark runs into the woods and gets lost. Mr. Maxwell goes after him and ends up getting hurt and having to rely on Mark to get them out of the woods. A story of courage, loyalty and fairness, students will enjoy this book and learn what it takes to survive "a week in the woods."

Reviews



SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: Gr 4-6-Angered by his family's move from Scarsdale, NY, to rural New Hampshire, Mark refuses to make friends or please his teachers. Because of his indifference, one teacher decides that he's dealing with a "slacker" and a "spoiled rich kid." To make matters worse, the fifth grader acts unimpressed with Mr. Maxwell's annual outing to the state park for a week of nature studies. However, the boy becomes increasingly interested in the outdoors and camping and signs up for the trip. On the first day there, the teacher discovers Mark with a camping tool that contains a knife, an item that students were asked not to bring. He decides that someone needs to teach the boy a lesson and decides to send him home. Mark runs away, gets lost, and must use his newly acquired skills to survive a night in the woods. The story explores both Mark's and Mr. Maxwell's point of view, and the final resolution of their conflict is effective. The boy's relationships with his ever-absent parents and his caregivers are interestingly developed. The novel includes a helpful map of the state park. Like many of Clements's titles, this one will be a popular choice, particularly with fans of Gary Paulsen and Jean Craighead George.-Jean Gaffney, Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library, Miamisburg, OH Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.



KIRKUS REVIEWS: Playing on his customary theme that children have more on the ball than adults give them credit for, Clements (Big Al and Shrimpy, p. 951, etc.) pairs a smart, unhappy, rich kid and a small-town teacher too quick to judge on appearances. Knowing that he'll only be finishing up the term at the local public school near his new country home before hieing off to an exclusive academy, Mark makes no special effort to fit in, just sitting in class and staring moodily out the window. This rubs veteran science teacher Bill Maxwell the wrong way, big time, so that even after Mark realizes that he's being a snot and tries to make amends, all he gets from Mr. Maxwell is the cold shoulder. Matters come to a head during a long-anticipated class camping trip; after Maxwell catches Mark with a forbidden knife (a camp mate's, as it turns out) and lowers the boom, Mark storms off into the woods. Unaware that Mark is a well-prepared, enthusiastic (if inexperienced) hiker, Maxwell follows carelessly, sure that the "slacker" will be waiting for rescue around the next bend-and breaks his ankle running down a slope. Reconciliation ensues once he hobbles painfully into Mark's neatly organized camp, and the two make their way back together. This might have some appeal to fans of Gary Paulsen's or Will Hobbs's more catastrophic survival tales, but because Clements pauses to explain-at length-everyone's history, motives, feelings, and mindset, it reads more like a scenario (albeit an empowering one, at least for children) than a story. Worthy-but just as Maxwell underestimates his new student, so too does Clement underestimate his readers' ability to figure out for themselves what's going on in each character'slife and head. (Fiction. 10-12)