The Wheel on the School

The Wheel on the School, by Meindert DeJong, is a book about a small fishing town named Shora, and the adventures that they children of Shora have as they try to get storks to nest in Shora. It all starts when a girl named Lina writes a composition about Storks. This sets off a frenzied discussion that soon turns into an adventure that has the children searching the whole country-side for a wheel. They search far and wide, in places where a wheel could be, and places where a wheel could not be. In the process they make friends of he most unlikely of people, and learn important lessons about themselves and their village.

I really enjoyed Meinder DeJong's story. It was both entertaining and heartwarming, and I have read it many times since I first opened it. The book won a Newbery Medal, and is a great story of friendship and adventure. Though I read it when I was in fourth or fifth grade, the story can also appeal to middle school students. The book offers some great points for discussion and will have you wanting your own pair of Storks on your roof. It will also leave you questioning your own life, for that is what this book is really about. It is a book about questions, and the ways in which a simple question can transform a person, a school, and a village.