Customer Reviews

Eleven

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sam doesn't know why he fears the number eleven, but as his 11th birthday approaches, he feels a need to explore his past. When he discovers a locked box and a newspaper clipping in the attic, he learns he might once have been a missing child. Now he's worried about his relationship with beloved grandfather, Mack, and friends Onji and Anima.

Since Sam has difficulty reading, he befriends a new girl at school who reads constantly. Soon Sam and Caroline are working on a class project together and searching for clues to Sam's past.

Characters make this story very special. Mack teaches Sam the pleasures of repairing and working with wood. Sam uses his gifts to build a clever wooden castle for the school project. The lessons he applies to his woodworking help him develop the patience to face his reading problems and discover the truth about his past.

Onji and Anima, friends and neighbors, act as extended family for Mack and Sam. Anima reads to Sam every evening, and Onji is constantly offering food and support.

But it is Sam's friendship with Caroline that really centers this book. Sam isn't sure he wants to be friends with a girl, but he needs Caroline's ability to read. Caroline's artistic but nomadic parents make Sam appreciate his own solid family life.

This story moves along quickly, driven by Sam's constant search for information about his mysterious past. All the clues finally fall into place and the dreams and memories that have bothered Sam are explained in a satisfying ending.

Reluctant boy readers will especially enjoy this story - Sam is an active, imaginative, and believable eleven-year-old. During the course of the story, he works with wood, goes boating, and ultimately decides to build his own boat. He works out problems for himself, seeking help from friends, family, and teachers when he needs it. But girls will find the story equally enjoyable, as Caroline provides an alternate viewpoint to the action.

This would make a good read-aloud book for a classroom. The action-filled chapters will hook readers, and there's room for discussion of issues related to reading and learning difficulties, friendship, family secrets, and the joys of developing one's own talents and gifts.

"Eleven" begins with quite the premise: During his erstwhile search for his birthday presents, Sam stumbles across some old newspaper clippings kept by his grandfather, with whom he lives. Because Sam struggles with reading, he is only able to recognize his picture as a toddler, and the word "MISSING". "Missing?" Sam wonders, "I was missing?" From here, Sam begins to wonder: Where are his parents? Is the man he lives with really his grandfather? And since he himself cannot read the article, he'll need to find someone he can trust to read it for him.

This is a premise for a story that could easily have gone into many uninteresting and tired directions, but author Patricial Reilly Giff avoids many of them and weaves a story together that is both authentic and fulfilling.

When Sam finally gains the answers to the questions he asks, we accept them, and so does he.

I enjoyed, too, the subplot between Sam and his teachers, who are struggling to help him to read. As a middle school teacher, I found that Sam's reactions and struggles with his inability to sound much the as today's students who bear similar struggles. His final conversation with his reading teacher was quite moving.

As a coming-of-age story, "Eleven" isn't as strong as others, simply because Sam's challenges aren't that common. But his quest for self-identity, as well as that for simple friendship, should ring true with younger readers. Even if they can't put themselves directly into his shoes, they could probably see him as a friend or classmate.

A worthy addition to any library.

Do you like to put together puzzles? You know figuring out how all the pieces fit together to make a picture. Sam is a normal eleven year old kid with a family that loves him. He is an average student at school. In fact, about the only thing that seems to make him special is his gift for building furniture. He can take unfinished wood, cut it, shape it, put the pieces together and finish it into something great.
Sam accidentally finds a clue (a puzzle piece) about his past that changes the picture of his entire world. Who is he, where did he come from, does he need to escape? Who can he ask for help? Who can he trust? Now he has to find more clues, and meanings. He has to finish this story, this picture.
Patricia Reilly Giff's Eleven, is part mystery, part detective story and much more. It is about finding g the kind of strength you need to overcome your own weakness and fear. It is a story about making yourself better because you find a way to face your problems.
This story is in my opinion not too easy to read, but easy to understand. I think ti is not for readers under fourth grade. I believe that kids who read at this level and above and maybe even adults will enjoy this book.
Patricia Giff mixes dreams, memories, and current events to tell her story. At times I found it hare do tell if I was reading about Sam's past, present or future. Maybe the confusion helped make it more of a mystery.
The story has a lot of detailed descriptions about places, things and people. In some ways, it was easier to picture in my mind locations than it was to follow the story. The book is organized into chapters, and each chapter was like a short story about a specific thing or person. Kind of like separate puzzle pieces.
When all of the pieces came together Sam has a new picture that tells his story and at the same time tells stories about the other important character in the book. When you first start reading this story you might think it is just about a mixed up eleven year old boy. Think again.

I read this in an afternoon and was quite pleased. Suspense without being too scary. It was great to see a character with such a wonderful support system as the main character has in his grandfather, neighbors, teachers, cat, and his newest friend. Suitable for boys and girls alike. Might also be good for reluctant readers, as the main character is an 11 year old boy who really struggles with reading and comments that letters look like spiders to him.

Sam has weird dreams of another life. What do they mean? One day, as he is in the attic searching for the presents his family may have hidden for his up-and-coming eleventh birthday, he sees a news article that really makes him wonder. Sadly, Sam cannot read, no matter how hard he tries. In order to help him uncover truths, he becomes friends with colorful Caroline, the new girl in the class who loves to read. Together, they try to uncover Sam's past and develop a wonderful friendship as well.

This book by acclaimed children's author, Patricia Reilly Giff, is a wonderfully exciting book for young readers. The characters are well-developed, and the clues in this mystery hold the young readers' interest. It is a story of the importance of family and friendship and love, no matter what form they take.

Patricia Reilly Giff offers a great tale about a young boy with a mysterious past, a reading disability, and a growing need to find out where he belongs. She does a good job of opening Sam's world and exposing the reader to all the concerns the boy has.

I was hooked on the possibility that Sam had been kidnapped and suspicious of the family he'd fallen in with. I also have a son that struggled all through school with a reading disability and I saw the frustration he had with trying to understand the world when he lacked an important interface to be part of it.

Giff sets the readers up for the mystery that's woven throughout the novel when Sam discovers a locked box in his grandfather's attic. Sam works in the wood shop with his grandfather. Even though Sam can't read, he's got a natural affinity for wood and carpentry. The shop came alive for me in the scenes when he was there.

The possibility that he was kidnapped remained in my mind throughout the book until the issue was resolved. Even though I felt pretty certain how everything worked out, I didn't know for sure what was going to happen till I turned those final pages. Giff keeps the suspense humming.

The relationship Sam has with Caroline is terrific. I liked her snarky character, and I felt for her because she was the girl who was always moving with her parents. I was that kid for a while, and it's hard moving from school to school. The way she hooked up with Sam and became part of his world was very genuine and touching.

Sam's love for his grandfather Mack is solid and well told, but that thread of suspicion about how he came to have Sam and where Sam's parents were just wouldn't go away. Giff works that paranoia well, but she heaps on Sam's guilt about feeling distrusting of his grandfather as well. The writing is smooth and effortless, and I felt just as drawn into Sam's identity crisis as he was.

Reluctant readers will identify with Sam in these pages. The frustrations and anger I remember from my own son are there. The inability to understand what makes him so different hurt. One of the best things about stories is when they speak the language of compassion and understanding, and this one does.

I recommend this book to struggling readers, kids who like suspense/mystery stories, teachers that love to read to their middle grade students, and to readers that want to take a break from fantasy worlds. Sam's life is great reading.

Sam is an eleven year old boy who lives with his grandfather, Mack. He also has Mack's friends Onji and Anima who are part of his extended family. The setting takes place right before Sam's eleventh birthday. Sam goes in search of his presents in the Attic, and stumbles upon a locked box with a newspaper clipping `pocking' out of the box that made him very curious. The article had a picture of him as a toddler and at the top there was a description that said "Missing". But since Sam could not read, all he understood was the picture of him and the word "Missing".

In the beginning of the book Sam lacked confidence and is confused about who he really is. Even though he could not read, he is creative, has an active imagination, and loves building projects. Mack, his grandfather taught him how to carve wood. He used this talent to build a boat and castle. As the story unfolds, Sam becomes a determined, confident boy who wants to find out who he really is as his memories of his childhood are few. He is afraid to find out the truth though, since it would reveal not only who he is but also who the people in his life really are. For example, his grandfather, Mack. He also wants to overcome his difficulty of reading and does this through his friendship with Caroline and encouragement from his teacher, Mrs. Waring.

Patricia Giff uses flashbacks to get her readers' attention. This was an effective way of getting my attention. It caused me to think and be curious as to what will happen next. Her characters had a believable flavor, since they represented how kids and family reacted in real life. The book was fascinating and mysterious all at the same time. This also made me want to finish the book.

This is a well written book. Adults and kids of all ages would enjoy it! The book explores friendship, learning differences and family. In my opinion, I rate this book ` five stars' because as an eleven year old boy myself, it motivated me to be a better reader and encouraged me to participate more in Book Club discussions.

The book Eleven was only so-so. I recommend this fiction book to kids ages 9 to 11 and in 4th and 5th grade because the characters are those ages.
Sam the main character lives with his grandfather Mac. On the night before his 11th birthday Sam goes into his attic to see if his grandfather has hidden a birthday present there. To his surprise, he instead finds a slip of newspaper saying he might have been kidnapped when he was younger, only he can't read the article because he has dyslexia. Sam spends the rest of the book, with his new friend Caroline, trying to figure out if he was kidnapped or not. The author likes to use dreams as flashbacks to help Sam figure out his past, but the dreams are not always right. She also speeds up the action in chapters and those are the most interesting parts of the book, yet she also likes to slow down in parts of the book and those are the worst parts. Therefore, I recommend this book to patient readers because this book can be very slow in parts and very interesting in others. I do not recommend this book to impatient readers because it is very slow in parts. Overall, this book is only so-so and on a scale of 1-10 I would give it a 5.

Sam doesn't have it so bad. Sure, he has real problems reading and has to spend part of each day in the dreaded, ugly Resource Room. Sure, his parents are long gone. But Sam has friends and, most importantly, a wonderful "family" who loves him.

There's his grandfather Mack, a gifted woodworker who has passed on his skills, and his tools, to his beloved grandson, who also shows signs of seeing hidden possibilities in the most unlikely blocks of wood. There's Onji, who owns the deli next door and always gives Sam the best brown bag lunches. And there's Anima, owner of the Indian restaurant down the way, who cooks Sam's favorite curries and, most importantly, reads to him late into the evening, because Sam can't read by himself. Finally, there's Night Cat, Sam's beloved companion for as long as he can remember. Together, they form the perfect companions, making a comfortable extended family that nurture and protect one another.

So why is Sam dreading turning 11? The number 11 haunts him in dreams --- or are they barely-recalled memories? When Sam discovers a newspaper clipping that features a picture of himself as a very young boy and the headline "MISSING," he feels like there must be some mystery in his past that he soon becomes desperate to solve, even though he needs to read to do so. Perhaps Caroline, his new partner for a school castle-building assignment, will help him. She reads all the time, after all. But Caroline, whose itinerant parents can't seem to settle down and who's been to three schools already this year, has troubles of her own. Will she and Sam find the answer before it's too late? And what if the answer is what Sam fears? What if his only true family --- his grandfather --- isn't really his family at all?

In ELEVEN, veteran children's author Patricia Reilly Giff offers readers many issues to ponder. She explores questions of literacy, of belonging, of home and family, and of friendship. She also urges readers to question their own definitions of giftedness and of family. Both of these concepts are illustrated with great flexibility in the portrayal of Sam and of his unusual but loving and nurturing home life, contrasted with Caroline's more traditional, but less stable and satisfying, family situation.

Giff brilliantly employs these big issues in a plot that is simultaneously urgent --- will Sam discover his true identity? Do we even want him to? --- and leisurely, as she allows Sam plenty of room in which to question his assumptions and plenty of space in which Sam and Caroline's lovely friendship can grow. ELEVEN is one of those wonderful books whose quiet surface simplicity belies its deeply complex moral and philosophical questions. Quite simply, it is one of the best novels for young people that I've read in a long time.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

It was just one day before Sam Mackenzie's birthday, and he wanted to find his grandfather's present, since he could not wait. He looked everywhere and just couldn't find it. So then he tried looking in the attic. And instead of a present, Sam discovered an article that would question who he was and if he was even in the right place. He didn't know it, but this was the beginning of a very long journey.

Unfortunately, Sam isn't able to read much, so finding someone who could read the article for him was his first obstacle. While his teacher was lecturing on certain spices, Sam took this opportunity to look for someone he could trust to read the article for him.

He lands upon Caroline, the new girl who unexpectedly came into his class about a month ago. He knew she was the perfect candidate since she was always reading during class. Of course, he couldn't just go up to her and ask her to read it for him. So he decides to make friends with her. The first conversation he has with her goes great, except for the part where she said they probably couldn't be friends since she wasn't going to be there for long.

Then his teacher volunteers Caroline to help Sam with a castle he was going to build. With this, Sam finally has the opportunity to spend more time with Caroline, and maybe even try to become her friend.

Hoping that she would be able to help him, Sam still had other things to worry about, like his dreams that contain images of objects that surround him in his daily life. And the number eleven becomes the biggest mystery of all, besides the fact that it is the day in April he was born; it was imprinted everywhere once he dreamt.

Together, two unlikely people will work together to solve a mystery that no one would be able to figure out by themselves. Friendships will evolve, identities will be questioned, and secrets will be revealed.

Enchanting and mysterious, ELEVEN is a thriller that will fascinate not only teenagers and adults but also kids of all ages. A novel about a boy with a problem and an unlikely friend there to help him, ELEVEN will take you on a journey that will be cherished once it has ended. Patricia Reilly Giff, famous for her previous releases, will awe her fans once again.

Reviewed by: Randstostipher "tallnlankyrn" Nguyen