Book reviews: saving a sasquatch
mauri rapp

review 1:

1 every child faces the trouble of fitting in with others at one time or another. author beth ann carpenter writes about how hard fitting in with others can be in saving a sasquatch. the book is about a young teacher named miss snell who takes her class on a hike along a nearby creek where they spot a creature walking in the bushes. at first, they think the creature is a sasquatch, but soon they realize that it is just a tall man named benny who lives in town. benny is kind but shy, and he has trouble fitting in with other people. some students, under miss snell’s supervision, become friends with benny. the book's narration, which changes from character to character, gives readers more information about the different characters' thoughts. carpenter's book has great character development, and even the less-important characters come alive. perhaps this is one of the reasons i can identify with this book. as someone who moved around a lot as a child, i know what it is like to feel lonely. the book shows that friendship is all somebody needs to feel included. it is a good lesson for today’s children to learn.

review 2:

2 saving a sasquatch by beth ann carpenter is a story about a teacher who takes her class on a nature hike. instead of finding leaves and plants, though, they find a creature that they think might be a sasquatch. they learn, however, that it is actually a man named benny who lives in town, and several kids from the class become friends with him. parts of the book are unbelievable. first of all, how could they mistake a man for a sasquatch? also, carpenter uses several of the book’s characters to narrate the story, and sometimes it was hard to tell which character was speaking. i did like that the book showed how hard it can be to make friends, and i thought the characters were well developed. in the book, it was difficult for benny to go out in public because he was almost seven feet tall. people would give him weird looks and whisper behind his back. what those people did not know, however, was that benny was a nice person who out at charities and ran the town’s soup kitchen. benny taught the class an important lesson about seeing beyond a person’s outside appearance and realizing what he is like on the inside is what matters most.

these two reviews make it clear that the author of saving a sasquatch uses several narrators to tell the story. according to review 1, what is the effect of this changing narration? a) the reasons for saving sasquatch are explained. b) miss snell is shown to be a kind and caring teacher. c) readers can learn the thoughts of different characters. d) the writer of review 1 can relate to the loneliness of the characters.