The sixth grade is one of the most emotionally difficult times of a child’s life. Everything about your life changes extremely quickly, from your school to how you are treated by adults. Even your own body betrays you by changing without your approval. Oftentimes, even your friends start changing. This is an incredibly challenging time, and the adults in these children’s lives tend to brush these issues off because “they aren’t real issues.”

The View from Saturday by E.L Konigsburg does a fantastic job of capturing the feelings that come with being an outcast in the sixth grade. It starts with a cold open in the perspective of a teacher that runs an academic team at the state finals. With each question asked, the story changes perspectives to one of the four sixth graders. It shows a piece of them discovering themselves and each other, and each of their perspectives of the formation of their unlikely friend group. The story continues to cut between the competition and the memories until the final question is answered.

This is, without exaggeration, one of my favorite books. I love the in media res style of writing, and the plot flows smoothly. While the characters may not be relatable to the average reader, I was able to find myself in them very well. They also act very realistically for their situations and ages. They do not all get along at first, and they must go through something together before they really become friends, which I think is a pleasant change from books usually making friendships previously established.

I first read this book when I was a little above the age of the characters, so it did not have its full intended effect, but I still really enjoyed it, and I still relate to it a lot today. I completely recommend it to anyone, sixth grader or not, who is struggling with feeling isolated or a wavering sense of self.