Published relatively late in E.L. Konigsburg's career—though before she won her second Newbery Medal, for The View from Saturday, in 1997—T-Backs, T-Shirts, COAT, and Suit still features the spirited sort of main characters Ms. Konigsburg was always known for. Twelve-year-old Chloë Pollack isn't interested in hanging around her hometown of Ridgewood, New Jersey this summer. Her friends, Anjelica and Krystal, have irritated her lately with their fixation on physical appearance. Chloë's options fo...

#40RereadsBefore40 Book 10 E.L. Konigsburg was a talented writer with some very strange books to her name. I'm a big fan from the perspective of someone who appreciates good, clever writing, but as a kid I was bewildered, and as a parent, I am wary.T-BACKS, T-SHIRTS, COAT AND SUIT was published in 1993 when I was in 5th or 6th grade. I owned a paperback copy back then, but when the public library in my hometown discarded the hardcover a few years ago, I snatched it up at their bookstore and now

A twelve-year old girl spends the summer in Florida helping her "mysterious" Aunt who runs a food truck. She gets involved in a modern day witchhunt involving what at first seems to be the morality police gone wild but then becomes an actual witchhunt when a few careless tales she spins about her aunt convinces some people she's a consort of the devil.There are some interesting parallels here about identity and finding yourself and sticking up for your rights and the rights of other people but I...

A wonderful story of a very perceptive young girl, who spends a summer working with her aunt. Chloe is a very precise almost detached teenager; intelligent and methodical. Bernadette is a former hippie who lived in a commune with her younger brother, Nick. Nick married Chloes mother and adopted Chloe. I love how so many misunderstandings about people in general, and these characters in particular, make life so challenging. this is a well written enjoyable story, and made me go look for more by t...

This was a weird book. Weird characters. Weird story.

I liked this book. Lessons to be learned from history to now this really is still going on. 2020 is actually worse now then in 1992 when people really wanted to make statements.... This book shows how you can be persuaded to one thing or another all for the love of Fame or greed (money) and or power.... such a powerful book in little words. This is a middle grade book and you follow Chloe as she goes on a journey she did not know she needed. Chloe went to stay with her Aunt in Florida and the T-...

I liked this and I learned something while reading it. A good story, good characters, and some interesting historical facts without bogging down the narrative. A masterful job of walking a fine line. Some interesting twists and a very satisfying ending.

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Interesting lessons are learned by a young 12-year-old girl as she spends the summer with her step-dad's sister.

3.5 stars

"Chloe read smiles the way some people read tea leaves or tarot cards. The most important thing she watched for was how it grew. Slow and twitchy were the two basic styles. Female salesclerks and office receptionists had twitchy smiles for twelve-year-old females. Dental hygienists, wonderful slow smiles; fast-food waiters, twitchy; actors playing fast-food waiters on TV, slow. Anchorpersons, two basic smiles: twitchy-twitchy when they were talking to each other and slow-twitchy when they were d...

This was a rather interesting read, it involved hippies, lawsuits, and T-Backs which I now know are basically swimsuit thongs. This books takes place somewhere in the 90's and the protagonist, a extremely unwilling Chloe, gets to be the honored guest as law meets personal freedom. With a hippies aunt and odd dog, the story takes the reader though a journey that invites the reader to think of the consequences of actions, even actions many years ago and how things can often be different than they

About girl who stays with her independent aunt for a summer. She (girl) is independent, quick talking and smart— she learns all kinds of lessons as she works with Aunt on food mobile. She finds out about hard work, feeling like a “3-in-one” (feeling a unit with aunt and dog), and personal rights as they all get caught up in a lawsuit when competition wears skimpy bathing suits to attract customers. Main thing is that the aunt, who is minus a breast from cancer surgery, has a right to NOT partici...

This was an interesting book. It begins with a disclaimer about t-back swimsuits, and so if you are offended by T-backs I wouldn't recommend this book. It's about a girl who spends the summer with her step-aunt, in Florida. Unbeknownst to all parties concerned the step-aunt's work place is about to suffer a T-back revolution. It causes controversy all over town. It's a good book, just regular fiction. I don't think it's E.L. Konigsburg's best. By now you probably realize that I really like From

I like how Konigsburg flips the map and has children coming to the rescue of adults rather than vice versa - visiting her Aunt Bernadette, Choe finds herself caught up in a food-truck war that centres on wearing what Konigsburg calls t-back (aka thongs) and being accused of being a witch. Kind of improbable - I can't imagine the health department not shutting down trucks where the servers are grilling burgers and making fries where the employees are wearing thongs! Still, here again is another b...

E. L. Konigsburg is a favorite of mine and I like her quirky and unique style. I like that her characters are tweenish types who are really at a point of development in their maturity and that she gives us a snapshot into the circumstances that shape that development. This fits into her brand just fine. Twelve year old Chloe's experience during a summer where she learns to face the "unexpected" is plausible enough. Teaches a few lessons about hard work, empathy, friendship, getting caught up in

It pains me to say this, because you know E.L. Konisburg and I are BFF, but this is definitely her worst book. It's not even bad in the "bad for this author, but still good in general" way... this book is just bad. The main character is unlikable, the teacher/mentor figure is also pretty unlikable, and the action is both convoluted & slightly ridiculous. I agree with the reviewer who wrote "who calls thongs T-backs?"--it took me three chapters before I figured out what she was talking about. The...

Great book - as usual per konigsburg. Thought provoking. Who sets dress codes? Who sets the cultural norms? Who has the 'right' to set decency laws/standards? What is the measure? This is especially thought provoking in examining the Western bias/disdain for hijab and/or abaya and/or chador... what is modest? why is nudity not accepted and/or against the law fairly universally? Is it OK to use sex appeal for sales? Is it a double standard? How do the character's FEEL? How would you feel in the s...

This was an ok book. It was about how this little girl did not want to go somewhere but she had to. Then when she got there she went into Nick's house and he has a dog and she is scared of it and they want her to pet it but she doesn't want to because she is scared she will smell like dog for the rest of the time. Then finally she pet the dog and figured out that their dog was nice and was not going to lick her and it was ok to pet the dog.

I think the author could improve on how COAT won the t-back battle because all it said in the book was COAT has won and t-backs have lost. It feels as if the ending was rushed because of the way the t-back battle ended and the book really seem to end at the part where Chloe talked to the layer Mr.Bayard about him defending Bernadette. The rest of the book feels like I'm reading the epilogue. Overall this book is good and it seems like a book for young adults.

I really liked this YA book. It deals with our history of going on "witch hunts" for power and monetary gain. It certainly would help a young person understand how the Salem Witch hysteria could have happened. As always with Konigsburg's fiction, it is well-written and has characters that you both love and hate!

Presents a very one-sided negative view of religion, both in the depiction of the Bible-thumping, witch-hunting fundamentalists and in the overblown and misleading historical account of the Church's dealings with Galileo. The book appears to conflate these two into one big bunch of bad guys, with no balance.

If you're going to read Konigsburg, I recommend Silent to the Bone or one of her Newbery list novels instead of this one. Maybe it was too subtle for me, but I found T-backs to be rather boring and pointless. The writing itself was good, and the plot had potential, but I was surprised when the book ended because it hadn't gotten anywhere yet.

I didn't find E.L. Konigsburg until adulthood, and have since read nearly all her books. Her characters in her books are always funny and smart and figuring out something about the world or themselves. This book is no exception. It's on my book shelf as one to return to.reread 9/10

I liked this book, but it's not one of my favorites in her extensive library. It's a little similar to The Outcasts of 19 Shyler Place, but not as good. 12 year old girl, coming of age trauma, weird relatives, funky social obstacle to overcome - but just not as good.

Sweet, as are all of Konigsburg's books. Realistic portrayal of the way adolescents think about themselves and the people around them, but I love reading about how people grow and learn more about themselves and the world.

This is such a funny book. Great book for a quick plane ride or something for it is fairly short. I must admit that the beginning is a little weird but keep reading! It gets so much better as the story goes on.

Not her best. And who refers to thongs as "T-backs"?

On the whole, I am a big fan of Konigsburg. This book was a horribly boring exception.

This book was really confusing. I really didn't enjoy it!