From the Newbery Medal–winning author of the beloved classic From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler comes four jewel-like short stories—one for each of the team members of an Academic Bowl team—that ask questions and demonstrate surprising answers.

 

How had Mrs. Olinski chosen her sixth-grade Academic Bowl team? She had a number of answers. But were any of them true? How had she really chosen Noah and Nadia and Ethan and Julian? And why did they make such a good team?

 

It was a surprise to a lot of people when Mrs. Olinski’s team won the sixth-grade Academic Bowl contest at Epiphany Middle School. It was an even bigger surprise when they beat the seventh grade and the eighth grade, too. And when they went on to even greater victories, everyone began to ask: How did it happen?

 

It happened at least partly because Noah had been the best man (quite by accident) at the wedding of Ethan’s grandmother and Nadia’s grandfather. It happened because Nadia discovered that she could not let a lot of baby turtles die. It happened when Ethan could not let Julian face disaster alone. And it happened because Julian valued something important in himself and saw in the other three something he also valued.

 

Mrs. Olinski, returning to teaching after having been injured in an automobile accident, found that her Academic Bowl team became her answer to finding confidence and success. What she did not know, at least at first, was that her team knew more than she did the answer to why they had been chosen.

自1922年以來，「紐伯瑞獎 ( The Newberry Medal )」致力於促進美國兒童文學的創作與發展。此獎項以18世紀受譽「兒童文學之父」的英國出版商約翰．紐伯瑞 ( John Newberry )命名，推崇其「快樂至上」精神，挑選出國內眾多優秀作品。多年來，紐伯瑞獎不僅在美國，更在全球兒童文學界發揮著巨大的影響力。

 

紐伯瑞獎的入選與得獎作品涵蓋了豐富多元的題材和類別，囊括各種類型小說與具時代意義的創作。這些優秀作品的內容貼合世界發展的趨勢，不僅打開對兒童發展的視野，更展現出對人文的深刻關懷。