Building Blocks

by Cynthia Voigt

Book Overview

Brann Connell, a twelve-year-old boy who believes his father is a "loser," travels back in time thirty years and learns something about his father as a little boy. In a single mystifying day of adventure, Brann learns that fate is something both to guide and accept. A 1984 Library Journal Best YA Book of the Year.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0449701301
• ISBN13: 9780449701300
• Release Date: September 1985
• Publisher: Fawcett Books
• Length: 10 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 4.2" x 6.9"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Buliding Blocks, a great story

This book was very well written in terms of plot, setting, characters and descriptions.

Walking a mile in my father's shoes...

The novel starts out with Brann (a twelve year old boy) not understanding his parents "Level Two" fight, where he took his mother's side in the dispute and did not understand his father's point, nor did he respect his father all too much. He crept into the basement to escape the dispute, only to fall into another world, another adventure. As he fell asleep in the middle of a fortress of building blocks, he then awoke to a new world, where his father was two years younger than himself. Their day was full of adventures, all of which Brann took a great deal of learning from. His father grew up a lot different than he provided for his son, and Brann was able to see where his father was coming from. We all have misunderstandings with our parents, and have trouble understanding their thoughts and points. Here, Brann is able to see the events that shaped his father, including the one event that shattered him the most. It gave meaning to walking a mile in someone elses shoes to see their point of view. I, overall, think this book is great for older children to read. It will help them to gain perspective in one way or another. The only gripe I had with this book is the handful of grammar and spelling errors that appeared throughout the novel. I do not know if this is because of the editing, or the publishing or who is responsible for looking out for that, but there were obvious mis-spellings, wrong word uses, and apostrophe use. It just really distracted me at points from reading the text. But other than those issues, the novel was well written: It had an exciting plot that draws the reader in, along with relatable characters whom the reader can easily relate to. Like I stated before, a great novel for older elementary aged children.

A valuable lesson through someone else's experience

While his parents were arguing, Brann went down stairs to the cellar and located his father's building blocks, which had been passed down through generations. He built a fortress and went to sleep on the cement floor. He awoke on a wooden floor looking at his father who was now ten years old back in l939. During this adventure he learned why his father married his mother and came to understand more about his mother's and his father's personalities. Because of this experience he saved the marriage between his parents due to the fact that you really don't know somebody unless you knew them when they were a kid. Kids don't have so many walls built around them to hide behind and keep safe. I think it would be great if we could go back in time and meet my father and talk to him when he was the age of ten. If this was possible we could save a lot of relationships and we would have a better world. It is true that we really don't know somebody unless you knew him ar her as a child because they haven't had a chance to build all those walls around them.