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Description

HOW HAD MRS. OLINSKI CHOSEN her sixth-grade Academic Bowl team? She had a number of answers. But were any of them true? How had she really chosen Noah and Nadia and Ethan and Julian? And why did they make such a good team?

It was a surprise to a lot of people when Mrs. Olinski's team won the sixth-grade Academic Bowl contest at Epiphany Middle School. It was an even bigger surprise when they beat the seventh grade and the eighth grade, too. And when they went on to even greater victories, everyone began to ask: How did it happen?

It happened at least partly because Noah had been the best man (quite by accident) at the wedding of Ethan's grandmother and Nadia's grandfather. It happened because Nadia discovered that she could not let a lot of baby turtles die. It happened when Ethan could not let Julian face disaster alone. And it happened because Julian valued something important in himself and saw in the other three something he also valued.

Mrs. Olinski, returning to teaching after having been injured in an automobile accident, found that her Academic Bowl team became her answer to finding confidence and success. What she did not know, at least at first, was that her team knew more than she did the answer to why they had been chosen.

This is a tale about a team, a class, a school, a series of contests and, set in the midst of this, four jewel-like short stories -- one for each of the team members -- that ask questions and demonstrate surprising answers.

About the Author

E.L. KonigsburgE.L. KONIGSBURG In 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. Frantweiler won the medal and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was named Honor Book. 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. Her most recent book for Atheneum is a collection of her speeches and new commentary about children's books, TalkTalk: A children's book author speaks to grown-ups.

After completing her degree at Carnegie-Mellon University, Mrs. 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 and her husband live on the beach near Jacksonville, Florida. Their children are all married.