A Week in the Woods - Hardcover

Clements, Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 068982596X ISBN 13: 9780689825965

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2002

Synopsis

Mark didn't ask to move to New Hampshire. Or to go to a hick school like Hardy Elementary. And he certainly didn't request Mr. Maxwell as his teacher. Mr. Maxwell doesn't like rich kids, or slackers, or know-it-alls. And he's decided that Mark is all of those things. Now the whole school is headed out for a week of camping -- Hardy's famous Week in the Woods. At first it sounds dumb, but then Mark begins to open up to life in the country, and he decides it might be okay to learn something new. It might even be fun. But things go all wrong for Mark. The Week in the Woods is not what anyone planned. Especially not Mr. Maxwell. With his uncanny knack to reach right to the heart of kids, Andrew Clements asks -- and answers -- questions about first impressions, fairness, loyalty, and courage -- and exactly what it takes to spend a Week in the Woods.

About this title

Review

Rich kids are snobs and slackers. They think they're too good for anyone else, and that they don't have to work hard at anything. That, at least, is the opinion of fifth-grade science teacher Mr. Maxwell, and the super-rich new kid, Mark Chelmsley, is showing no signs of transcending the stereotype. Or is Mr. Maxwell just too anti-elitist or ego-driven to notice? Once again, the talented Andrew Clements (Frindle, The Janitor's Boy) allows adult characters to "come of age" right along with his adolescent characters in the most refreshing and insightful of ways.

Mark has low expectations of his new school in rural New Hampshire, and he'll be there for less than four months anyway, so he can't let himself get attached. It's the glory of the countryside around him that shakes him awake--and the urban boy's first trek on snowshoes, discovery of an old barn, and rediscovery of Jack London are exciting to behold. For the first time in his busy, absentee parent-controlled life, Mark discovers "his own sense of time--time present--and he had discovered how much this time was worth."

As the reader starts to like this curious, resourceful, clearly not lazy kid, Mr. Maxwell's preconceptions start to seem all the worse. It all comes to a head at the school's annual camp out (called A Week in the Woods), where Mr. Maxwell accuses Mark of breaking a rule--without getting all the facts that would have proven his innocence. Mark escapes into the woods before he can be driven home: "If Mr. Maxwell wants to get rid of me so bad, then he's gonna have to find me first!" Will Mark survive on his own in the woods overnight? What will Mr. Maxwell do when he learns his own prejudices have colored his judgment? What starts out as a school camp out turns into a terrifically suspenseful survival story of a man and boy who come head-to-head, and learn a few lessons while they're at it. Readers will be on the edges of their seats! (Ages 9 to 13) --Karin Snelson

From the Inside Flap

Reader t.b.a.
approx. 4 hours
3 cassettes

Mark Chelmsley IV has never felt truly at home anywhere. With only four months left in the fifth grade before he starts at an exclusive boarding school, Mark doesn't think it's even worth trying to settle in. What changes his mind is a Week in the Woods- the annual school camping trip. But even there, things go wrong. Mark covers for a friend and lands himself in Big Trouble: his nemesis, science teacher Mr. Maxwell, suspends him. Just as Mr. Maxwell is about take Mark home, Mark runs off into the woods, putting his survival skills- and Mr. Maxwell's- to the test.

Edition details

• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 068982596X
• ISBN 13: 9780689825965
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160