Product Description

What do you do when your mother makes you invite the most obnoxious kid in your class to your birthday party?

- Or when you have to wait another thirty-three and a third years to see a shower of stars?

- Or your parents ship you off to fat camp?

- Or you have to share your private lunch hour with a girl who's mean to you just because of the color of your skin?

In E. L. Konigsburg's witty and perceptive short stories, four young people cope with difficult situations and, in doing so, learn something that changes their lives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #207082 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781416955016
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"A marvelous collection, full of wry humor." -- School Library Journal, starred review

"With E. L. Konigsburg doing the writing, you know the stories will be good." -- Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher
E.L. Konigsburg's writing is funny, perceptive, and, most of all, real. In these four short stories, she deftly captures four people who must cope with difficult situations -- and in doing so, learn something that changes their lives.

About the Author
E. L. Konigsburg is the only author to have won the Newbery Medal and be runner-up in the same year. In 1968 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the Newbery Medal and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was named Newbery Honor Book. Almost thirty years later she won the Newbery Medal once again for The View From Saturday. She has also written and illustrated three picture books: Samuel Todd's Book of Great Colors, Samuel Todd's Book of Great Inventions, and Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's. In 2000 she wrote Silent to the Bone, which was named a New York Times Notable Book and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, among many other honors.

After completing her degree at Carnegie Mellon University, Ms. Konigsburg did graduate work in organic chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh. For several years she taught science at a private girls' school. When the third of her three children started kindergarten, she began to write. She now lives on the beach in North Florida.

Gary E. Parker is the best-selling author of ten novels and three novellas, including Secret Tides and Fateful Journeys. A Christy Award finalist, Parker has become CBA's source for sweeping sagas of faith and family. A PhD graduate of Baylor University, he serves as the senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Decatur, Georgia, and lives there with his wife, Melody, and daughters, Andrea and Ashley.

Customer Reviews

Altogether
Using curt language complemented by black and white illustrations, Konigsburg presents four short stories for the young reader. Yet, the simple story lines hide a deep message about life. Each of the four children in Konigsburg's stories endures a difficult situation while growing up and realizes how our world is filled with both good and bad. When Lewis visits a meteor shower with his grandmother, he begins to understand the duel emotions older people face. At Camp Fat, Miss Natasha teaches chubby Clara issues about her weight. The reader also meets a young African American child through a story told by her daughter and young Jason who debates inviting Stanley to his birthday party.

This book provides an excellent example of a short story collection. The teacher can use the stories to show how plot development for short stories is similar to that of novels, the difference is just in length.

Camp Fat
Short stories written with the flair for supernatural of Konigsburg, I found the selection, Camp Fat the most intriguing. Along with a visit from a ghost comes a lesson of the psychological reasons children are fat. Those issues must be acknowledged before they can lose weight.

Very Good!
I love this book very much. What exquisite stories and beautiful illustrations! I have discovered a lot of things through these five short stories. Each story has a truth of life.