I really enjoyed this new Clements book. As is typical of his stories, it matches kid vs. school-adult in a large battle of wills. This time, the main character begins a contest at his school to see if all the 5th graders can stop talking for two days. Each chapter follows a different character’s involvement, from the students (it’s a boy-girl contest) to the teachers to the principal. It doesn’t exactly leave the reader with many enduring thoughts, but is enjoyable while reading. I think most kids would at least consider what daily life would be like if they completely stopped talking - and a few intrigued readers would probably attempt to do so (although maybe only for a few minutes, at best)!
The Landry News:
Again, a really typical Clements book - quick & enjoyable! I think my only complaint is that the main conflict isn’t a very believable one - it was a bit hard to see more than just one side of the story. But, I liked the main characters (a girl who writes her own newspapers and the burned-out teacher who finally begins teaching again to help her) and the plot moved along quickly. The best part, I thought, was that the formatting of the chapters, pictures, font, etc. is newspaper-like. Clements also works in some decent insight about kids of recent divorce, so perhaps a particularly good recommendation for a student who has divorced parents.
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