The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place

By: E.L. Konigsburg

Narrated by: Molly Ringwald

Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

The summer she's 12, the same year that Cabbage Patch dolls are popular, that Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space, that El Niqo affects weather patterns worldwide and causes disasters on almost every continent of the planet Earth, Margaret Rose Kane must confront a catastrophe brewing in her own backyard.  

Margaret is looking foward to spending the rest of her summer with her beloved great-uncles, Morris and Alexander. For the last 45 years, the uncles have been building three giant towers in their backyard from scrap metal and shards of glass and porcelain. But now, bowing to pressures from some powerful home owners, the towers have been declared a blight on the neighborhood. Even worse, the city council has voted to have them destroyed. 

Margaret Rose is outraged. She knows the towers for what they truly are: irreplaceable works of art. To Margaret, the towers sing. They sing of the joy of making something big and beautiful out of bits and pieces; of integrity; but perhaps most important of all, they sing of history. And Margaret Rose is determined to make sure they always will. 

This companion story to Silent to the Bone is a rousing tale of art, history, and the fierce preservation of individuality, as only the incomparable E.L. Konigsburg could write it. 

©2004 E.L. Konigsburg (P)2004 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group

Critic Reviews

"The plot is well paced and has excellent foreshadowing....Funny and thought-provoking by turns, this is Konigsburg at her masterful best." (School Library Journal)

If you are now or have ever been 12 years old

you really need to experience life through the eyes of Margaret Rose. We meet her at summer camp, where "doesn't fit in" is the understatement of the century. We follow her to the home of her eccentric bachelor uncles, where she sets out on a crusade to save what is most precious to her.

"Outcasts" appeals on multiple levels. I look forward to introducing it to my 8th-graders, but I wonder if they are old enough to appreciate it fully. E. L. Konigsburg writes with an ear for the concerns/cares/fears/dreams of the pre-teen and emerging adolescent. Some will suggest that her characters are too precocious, that 12-year-olds don't talk or think like this, but, trust me, I know this child, I've taught her, more than once. And whether children this age talk this way or not, it is how many of them think, and wish they could talk.

Do I need to say I'm giving this one an exuberant thumbs up?

6 of 6 people found this review helpful