I did not like the book very much. I thought it was just not exciting enough for me. I liked Sam because he had unique ways of going about things like the competition to see who could get water to the garden. I didn’t like the teacher because she tried to be so controlling about everything, even outside the classroom. I think the big idea is that the author thinks people should cooperate and do something as a community with their community. I liked most of the activities that we did in classes but I liked Mr. Howard’s activity most because it was a hands-on kind of thing.