A Week in the Woods
by Andrew Clements

Why A 5th, 6th, or 7th grade son or daughter will enjoy
A Week in the Woods

Mark, a rich kid from the city and Mr. Maxwell, a environmentalist science teacher, are such wonderful true-to-life characters. Anyone who has moved will feel for Mark. There are lessons to be learned in A Week in the Woods.--that people are not who they seem on first meeting and that the woods is a place to be treasured.

Synopsis

Fifth grader Mark Chelmsley has just been uprooted from his Scarsdale, New Your mansion to the woods of New Hampshire. The voice of the story is Mark's as he first struggles against a new environment, particularly the public school environment of Hardy Elementary and its science teacher, Mr. Maxwell. This realistic book reaches a climax during the school science trip when Mark learns to survive a week in the woods.

Description

quoting from the inside flap "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 fifth grade is headed out for a week of camping--Hardy's famous Week in the Woods. At first it sounds dumb to Mark, but then he begins to open up to life in the country, and he decides it might be okay to learn something new...."

What makes this an exceptional, realistic book is the complexity of the main characters. Yes, Mark is rich and can buy anything he wants, but he's also intelligent and thoughtful, and resourceful. Mr. Maxwell is judgemental and "unbending", but he's also a wonderful teacher who wants the 5th grade's Week in the Woods to be the highlight of his students' elementary years. The unplanned adventure that'occurs during the week changes the relationship between teacher and student.