The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place

Starred review from January 12, 2004
This elegant, absorbing novel focuses on Margaret, half-sister of Connor (the narrator of Silent to the Bone
) the summer she is 12, in 1983 (long before Connor's birth). As the novel opens, Margaret's Hungarian immigrant great-uncle Alex shows up at her summer camp to remove her mid-session. He bests the autocratic camp director as the woman attempts to demonstrate her professionalism and suggests that Margaret is "incorrigible." Konigsburg strikes just the right balance: Uncle Alex, Margaret and, by extension, the audience, are immediately allied against the forces of pomposity and falsehood. En route to the house Uncle Alex shares with his brother (Margaret's parents, professors, are working in Peru), Margaret, who narrates, lets readers know that she has been bullied by her cabin mates while the camp director has been willfully blind (the heroine never does tattle). Konigsburg's fans will expect that Margaret is not simply there to be rescued, however, and it is Margaret who ends up making the biggest stand. In their backyard Uncle Alex and Uncle Morris have built extraordinary towers that have stood for 45 years (the structures inevitably evoke the Towers of Watts); now that their once-abandoned and dangerous neighborhood has been gentrified, the new residents have won a campaign to tear down the towers, arguing that they "don't fit the history." These premises lay fertile ground for penetrating discussions about how a culture defines history and art. While the novel strikes a few uncharacteristically false notes toward the end, the author offers readers so much, so well, that her book is a veritable feast, amply demonstrating how intelligence can triumph over pretense. Ages 10-up.

April 12, 2004
Ringwald, who knows a thing or two about portraying teen girls dealing with big life issues, is a fine choice to narrate the story of wise-beyond-her-years Margaret Rose's 12th summer. In a tone that's blasé and disaffected when warranted, yet emotionally resonant and passionate in all the right places, Ringwald effectively brings listeners to Margaret's world. When her parents take a long summer vacation to Peru, Margaret is sent to Camp Talequa. But the mean and childish pranks of her bunkmates and the camp's cheery emphasis on "crafts-on-demand and Mother Nature" have Margaret refusing to participate in any activities. The unhappy camper is grudgingly granted a reprieve by the camp and spends the rest of the vacation with her eccentric and artistic great uncles. Margaret soon finds herself in the middle of a battle to preserve the tower sculptures—made of clockworks, porcelain, crystal and scrap metal—her uncles have built in their backyard over the past 45 years. Ringwald's solid work ensures that listeners will find much to like in Konigsburg's latest story of smart and memorable characters. Ages 10-up.

January 9, 2006
Margaret, who played a supporting role in Silent to the Bone
, here helps her uncles save their prized towers. In our Best Books citation, PW
wrote, "The author once again ably demonstrates how one young person can make a difference." Ages 10-up.