Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1959095 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02
• Format: Large Print
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 223 pages

From Amazon.com
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 Publishers Weekly
Mark, the 11-year-old at the center of Clements's (Frindle; The Jacket) brooding and uneven novel, initially has no interest in making friends at his new school in Whitson, N.H., where his constantly traveling parents have just renovated and enlarged a 1798 farmhouse. Knowing that he's headed off to a prestigious boarding school next year, the boy has no incentive for pleasing his teachers and spends much of the day gazing out the classroom window. His science teacher, Mr. Maxwell, passes judgment on Mark before the boy finally decides to give the school a chance ("The only kind of people Mr. Maxwell disliked more than slackers were... buy-the-whole-world rich folks"). A showdown between boy and teacher occurs at the start of the annual environmental program organized by Mr. Maxwell for the fifth graders, who spend a week in a wooded state park. The teacher's discovery of Mark with a tool containing a knife (which actually belongs to another boy) climaxes with a pursuit through the woods. Unfortunately, the suspenseful sequence that follows and the engaging denouement account for only a fraction of the novel. Laborious passages about Mark's family's home and barn and the boy's preparations for the school trip, plus perhaps a bit too much description of Mr. Maxwell's background, bog down the story line and may derail readers drawn to the book's enticing title. Ages 9-13.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6-Mark, a wealthy 11-year-old fifth grader, moves from Scarsdale, New York to a small, rural town in New Hampshire. His reluctance to make any effort to fit in with his new milieu puts him at odds with his science teacher and outdoor trip sponsor, Mr. Maxwell. The outdoor trip becomes a metaphor for personal growth and discovery. When Mr. Maxwell discovers that Mark has a knife and decides to send him home, Mark runs away and must use his outdoor skills during his night alone in the woods. Actor Ron Livingston is a solid narrator for this story by Andrew Clements (S&S, 2002). Male characters and vocalizations dominate, except for brief dialogue from Mark's mother and the female school principal. Although Livingston does not provide clearly discernable vocal changes for the different characters, his well-paced diction and the easy-going quality of the narration helps listeners recognize all the characters. There is a lot of descriptive and personal history background narration, especially during tape 2, but dialogue and soliloquies as well as the action pick up again on tape 3. This novel incorporates the themes of personal growth, courage, and the outdoors in an interesting storyline.
Tina Hudak, St. Bernard's School, Riverdale, MD
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.