When Zachary Beaver Came to Town is an award winning chapter books for grades 5 and up by Kimberly Willis Holt. The book is set in the Vietnam era Texas. The book has the main character, Toby, and his best friend, Cal, dealing with Cal's older brother, who joins the Army, dying in the war. Toby also has to deal with an absentee mother who has fled to Nashville to pursue her singing career. On top all of this Toby and Cal befriend a boy they met in a sideshow who is "The Fattest Boy Ever".
When reading this book I thought that it would be a great book to add to my classroom library. I don't think that I would use this book in my curriculum because I don't think that it would reach the interest level of many students. As an adult reader I liked it but it is not something that I would have wanted to read as a fifth-grade student. I think that it would be a great book to use on a list of required reading where the students could chose but not in a way where all students would have to read it. I think that it has great topics like the Vietnam War and what people had to deal with when a loved one was lost in the war which is something I think that this generation of students doesn't quite understand like the older generations. I think that it could spark a discussion between me and the students who read it about that era in American history.
There are often discussions about adults choosing books to receive honor awards for books written for children. It is important that you are considering what you enjoyed now vs. what you would have enjoyed as a 5th grade student. Of course, there might be some 5th graders who would enjoy it as much as you did now, but it is good to be cognizant that some might not fully appreciate it yet!
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