Who is the intended audience of Andrew Clements' A Week in the Woods?

Andrew Clements wrote A Week in the Woods for an elementary-school-aged audience. While Mark, the protagonist, is a little unusual in that he is a supper rich kid who has attended private schools all his life, the story is about Mark learning valuable life lessons about a person's attitude and about the consequences of mistakes, which are lessons all readers can relate to. Similarly, Mr. Maxwell, the second protagonist, learns a life lesson about the harm of judging others, which is another valuable lesson all readers can relate to.

Mark must move from Scarsdale, New York, a town he loves, to New Hampshire in February--the middle of his fifth-grade year. Since he is unimpressed with New Hampshire and his new public elementary school, he enters his school with a bad attitude. Since he knows he will be attending one of the nation's top private schools in a matter of months, he feels he can slack off while at the public elementary school. His attitude makes a lot of people at his new school think badly of him, especially his fifth-grade science teacher, Mr. Maxwell.

Mr. Maxwell is a seasoned outdoorsman and the sort of person who has been highly motivated his entire life, motivated enough to become an Eagle Scout. When he starts getting to know Mark, with his poor attitude, he thinks to himself that there is nothing he hates more than a "spoiled rich kid" and a "slacker" (p. 33). Even after Mark realizes he has been behaving wrongly and begins to adjust his attitude, Mr. Maxwell continues to give him a hard time. Therefore, while on the field trip in the woods, Mr. Maxwell comes down on Mark very hard when he discovers a multitool in his hand with a knife blade in it. Mr. Maxwell says he is taking Mark home immediately and threatens suspension. The tool actually belongs to Mark's friend Jason, but Mark does not want to get Jason in trouble so takes the blame.

In anger, instead of going to Mr. Maxwell's truck as commanded, Mark heads up the Barker Falls Trail. Mr. Maxwell discovers the knife is Jason's and realizes he has seriously misjudged Mark and treated him wrongly. He goes after Mark. Both make mistakes on the trail: Mark gets lost, and Mr. Maxwell breaks an ankle. But, they eventually find each other, and Mr. Maxwell apologizes for his behavior, saying, "I hope you can forgive me" (p. 155). Mark also convinces him he is actually a very good kid, ready to do what he thinks is right.

By the end of the story, Mark has become proud of all he has learned, including the right decisions he has made, and Mr. Maxwell has learned not to judge others so harshly, lessons all readers can relate to.