Benjamin Pratt & the Keepers of the School, We the Children - Andrew Clements (publisher for review)Product Details (from B&N)
- Pub. Date: April 06, 2010
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
- Format: Hardcover, 160pp
- Age Range: 7 to 10
- Series: Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School Series
- ISBN-13: 9781416938866
- ISBN: 1416938869
Synopsis (from back of book)
Benjamin Pratt's harbor-side school is going to be bulldozed to make room for an amusement park. It sounds like a dream come true...or is it more like a nightmare? Something about the plan seems fishy., and Lyman, the new assistant janitor, seems even fishier. When Ben and his friend, Jill, start digging for answers, they find things that the people with money and power don't want them to see. Could the history hidden deep within an old school building actually overthrow a thirty-million-dollar real-estate deal? And how far will the developers go to keep that from happening? Ben and Jill are about to discover just how dangerous a little knowledge can be.My Thoughts:
This is the first book in a new chapter book series. Ben and Jill are trying to save their school from destruction by a greedy company who wants to tear it down. I like the setting of the book, a small harbor town. On top of trying to save the school, Ben is dealing with a parental separation, so not only do we get a mystery side to the story, but we get to see how Ben copes with the stress of his parents separating. A tough subject but one that many kids face today.
The story doesn't wrap itself up at the end of the book, which kind of threw me a bit. I'm used to series books each having a plot line per book which wraps itself up. I'm thinking the whole series will have the same general plot that will wrap itself up in the last book of the series.
Finally I think the idea behind the story is a great one and I think children in 4th and 5th grade will enjoy it and the future books to come.
3 comments:
I've found that kids tend to do better with series books that carry the same pretense/characters along from one book to the next, but wrap up the story line in each number. Then again, Harry Potter didn't exactly do that after the first few books... thanks for the review!
This sounds like a great read. Without closure, I wonder when the next book will be coming.
This sounds like a nice series for the young ones. I like the sounds of this. I wonder if the open ending with through the younger ones for a loop while they wait for the next book. Thanks for the review!
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