A Week in the Woods (Andrew Clements)

A Week in the Woods
Andrew Clements
Atheneum Books
Fiction, CH Adventure
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: For over a decade, the highlight of the fifth grade year at Hardy Elementary has been A Week in the Woods, five days and nights camping out in a national forest and learning about the natural world. Mr. Maxwell, the science teacher, is the organizer and greatest proponent of the outing, being an avid woodsman and environmentalist. He loves sharing his passion for the wilderness with young minds, always eager to ... but one thing he cannot stand is slackers, or spoiled, entitled, wealthy kids whose families make their money off destroying the planet. So it was inevitable that he'd take a dislike to the new kid in his class, Mark Chelmsley (the Fourth). The boy's parents spent more renovating a local historic farm house and acreage than the entire town sees in a year, and the kid himself is every bit as disengaged and even snotty as one would expect from a wealthy boy "slumming" with commoners. A kid like that might even ruin A Week in the Woods - and Mr. Maxwell is determined not to let that happen.
Mark is tired of bouncing around the world from house to house, his parents gone on business trips more often than not. He loves his caretakers, and isn't neglected by any means, but he misses Mom and Dad and doesn't really feel attached to anyone or anywhere... until he arrives in the Chelmsley's latest home in New Hampshire. The wooded hills seem to call to him, and he develops a love of the land beyond anything he's experienced before. The only real drawback is his school - a public school, for the first time in his life - and the science teacher Mr. Maxwell. The man seems to dislike him from the start, the two developing a rivalry that only barely stays civil. But when Mr. Maxwell lets his grudge go too far, Mark finally snaps. He sets out to prove himself to the teacher and everyone... never expecting things to go so wrong.

REVIEW: Many children's books reduce adults to caricatures, mere obstacles that must be either avoided or overcome by the young protagonists. Clements never cheapens his stories like that. Here, both Mr. Maxwell and young Mark are well rounded, with clear roots and motivations for their behavior and their rivalry. The science teacher comes from a love of both teaching and the environment, and has seen what entitled people do to the planet... and what an unmotivated, slacker student can do to a classroom. Mark, meanwhile, has been told time and again that his brief foray in public school is a chance to relax; it won't really count, after all, for a boy already assured entry into an elite private boarding school, and besides his own schools covered most of the curriculum at least a year or two before so it's all old news. His disengagement masks a loneliness even the boy doesn't quite acknowledge, but which comes across to Mr. Maxwell as something else entirely. When young Mark discovers his own love of the woods, this could be a means to connect with the standoffish teacher, especially when he realizes himself how his attitude is contributing to his social isolation and he tries to change, but by then the faculty has made up its mind, especially Mr. Maxwell, who only digs in harder as the boy tries to establish a truce. It all culminates in the promised school camping trip, where Mr. Maxwell leaps to a conclusion and harsh judgement and pushes Mark too far. Given that the title and blurb center this camping trip as a main plot point, it feels like Clements drags his feet in getting there, wandering through backstory and Mark's earlier excursions into the woods on his family's property as he builds confidence and skills (helped by one of his caretakers, who has experience camping from his childhood in Russia). That said, the story does a decent job letting both Mark and Mr. Maxwell earn their lessons (it's not just the child who has something to learn, here). Despite the slower, wandering start, its portrayal of a boy's sense of wonder as he discovers a new world outdoors, how easily miscommunication between teachers and students can start, and the lasting ramifications of classroom grudges rings true.

You Might Also Enjoy:
The Janitor's Boy (Andrew Clements) - My Review
My Side of the Mountain (Jean Craighead George) - My Review
Hatchet (Gary Paulsen) - My Review