The View From Saturday portrays academic competition in the same exciting light as sports novels do football and baseball contests. The story is about a teacher and four sixth graders, underdogs all, who overcome challenges in their personal lives, school lives, and social lives to succeed in areas where they are only expected to be losers. Their triumphs are told in their own words, as well as in the words of third-person narrators, and the characters come alive in the telling as interesting and passionate human beings.

From gathering baby turtles on the beach to coping with a thieving monkey on a ship, The View from Saturday covers a wide range of experiences, all told in a brightly engaging way that conveys respect for young adult readers as intelligent individuals who want to be educated as they are taken on journeys that show how the human heart and spirit can surmount obstacles of prejudice and peer resentment.