The Canyon [Hardcover]

Sheila Cole (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

As long as Zachary Barnes can remember, he has been going to the canyon. In fact, everybody in San Ramon goes there to picnic, to jog, and to drink in its wild beauty. Zach and his best friend, Trevor, have tested their courage and strength on the canyon's steep bluffs. Zach has taken his best photographs of its scenery and wildlife. And somehow he always ends up in the canyon when he needs to be alone with his thoughts. But all that is about to change. The Bowen Corporation has plans to build a gated community in the canyon. Soon it will be Just another luxury housing development, and nobody seems to care.

Nobody except Zachary Barnes. He is determined to find a way to keep Bowen's bulldozers from rolling. But time is running out, and now Zach must decide how far he is willing to go to save the canyon.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-7-Sixth-grader Zach loves the canyon near his California home and decides to fight its planned development. He tries sabotage, then political organizing, and finally succeeds through an emotional appeal directly to the developer. He loses his best friend as their tactics and commitment to the project diverge, but he gains friends in the community as well as the respect of his family and the developer for making restitution for the sabotage by selling his valuable baseball-card collection. They end up with a compromise: over half of the planned development will be maintained as a nature preserve and park. The plot is plodding. Part of the problem is that it is weighed down with uninteresting details about daily life that do not move the story along, or let readers get to know (or care about) the characters. Zachary never really comes alive as an interesting, real sixth grader. By the end of the book, readers admire him for making a few tough choices, like standing up for his principles even when it costs him his best friend, but he still seems like a cardboard cutout. For a successful campaign and characters that spark interest, stick with Andrew Clements's Frindle (S & S, 1996).
Laurie von Mehren, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Parma, OH
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-6. Zach loves hiking to a nearby canyon to explore and take photographs, so when he hears that the canyon is going to be developed into a luxury housing development, he takes action. But pulling up the surveyor's stakes isn't effective in stopping the construction, and his friend Trevor is a little overenthusiastic about wreaking havoc on the site. Zach fears that they will be found out and arrested, but he continues to pursue saving the canyon using more lawful methods. The story unfolds rather conventionally at first and Zach seems very ordinary, but Cole twists the plot bit by bit, and by the end, Zach's ordinariness has become an important part of the story's message. Rather than demonizing corporations and politics, Cole shows how they work as pieces of a larger whole. Kids will enjoy seeing how the persistence of a young person like themselves can lead to success. Susan Dove Lempke
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; First Edition edition (May 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060294965
• ISBN-13: 978-0060294960
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,148,842 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Environmental issues and tactics, August 1, 2002

By 

F Oliver (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Canyon (Hardcover)

This book can provoke a lot of thought and discussion about what in the environment is worth going to bat for. This is a well-written book than any sixth grade teacher can use to stimulate class discussion around the environment, friendship, guilt, economics and moral dilemmas. As someone who works with children and cares about the environment, I found this was a first class read that should provoke great discussions.

4.0 out of 5 stars The Canyon, November 25, 2002

By 

"sofer7" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Canyon (Hardcover)

I read this book last summer vactaion after my twelve year old daughter had finished it, and we both enjoyed it. I was particularly drawn in by Mrs. Cole's depiction of the tension-filled friendship between Zac and Trevor which reminded me only too well of my own childhood. I think it is one of the truest descriptions of boy-boy friendship that I have read in a long time. The only put-off in the book was it's slightly moralistic tone...but my daughter doesn't agree with me on that one, so perhaps my age has made me too sensitive.

4.0 out of 5 stars The Canyon, November 25, 2002

By 

Sasha in SF "Sasha" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Canyon (Hardcover)

I read this book this summer along with my daughter who is 12 years old and we both really enjoyed.Mrs. Cole's depiction of the tension-filled friendship between Zac and Trevor, one of the center pieces of the book, was completely convincing. If there is one flaw, it is that the somewhat moralistic overtones at times irritated me. However, since they didn't seem to bother my daughter, I can only assume that is in age problem