The View From Saturday

The View From Saturday by American author Elaine Lobl Konigsburg was published in 1996 and won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children’s literature in 1997—Konigsburg’s second Newbery Medal. She is one of only six writers to win the award twice (her first was awarded for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler in 1968). Prior to becoming a writer of children’s and young adult fiction and publishing over 20 works from 1967 to 2007, Konigsburg was a science teacher and longtime resident of Florida, and she drew on both experiences while writing The View From Saturday.

The paperback edition used for this study guide was published in 1998 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Plot Summary

The View From Saturday records the journey of Mrs. Eva Marie Olinski, a teacher at Epiphany Middle School, from her first day teaching sixth grade to winning the national Academic Bowl Championship with four of her students. Mrs. Olinski is a paraplegic, paralyzed from the waist down from a car accident 10 years ago in which her husband was killed. Mrs. Olinski is nervous about her return to teaching, which is made worse by two homeroom students who prey on her insecurities and mock her physical limitations.