Their teacher, Mrs. Olinski, chooses four sixth-graders to be class representatives for the Academic Bowl team. When the team goes on to perform amazing feats of erudition, including winning the state championship, people keep asking Mrs. Olinski how she chose the participants. Although the questioners never got a real answer, the story, told from different perspectives, lets readers in on the secret. Konigsburg’s latest shows flashes of her great talent and grasp of her childhood, but the book is weighed down by a Byzantine structure that houses too many characters and alternating narratives that will confuse readers.