Frindle

Rating:
Summary: on the Texas Bluebonnet Master List, 1998-99
Review: This book is on a list selected by the Texas Library Association for reading in Texas schools, to be voted on by Texas school children in January 1999.

Rating:
Summary: Delightfully thoughtful comedy
Review: For any child, or any adult who ever wriggled their way through school, sure they were smarter than their teacher, and sure life held more.... there is Frindle. This book is fabulous! When all of Nicholas's attempts to gain the upper hand over his fearsome fifth grade teacher fail, he comes up with his most diabolical plan yet. He decides to create a new word, and chooses frindle - to replace the word pen. By turns hilarious and thoughtful, this book contains well developed characters, including a gorgon of a teacher who turns out to be one of those "best teachers ever." Nicholas sets out to teach a lesson to the teacher, and winds up learning far more than he ever would have dreamed. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

Rating:
Summary: The frindle is mightier than the sword
Review: At long last! An early reader chapter book designed to give full all-encompassing glory to language itself! Sort of. I first heard about "Frindle" some five years ago when it was burning up the bookshelves across the country. Kids couldn't get enough of the semi-raucous tale of one boy's attempt to make a contribution to the English language. Cleverly, author Andrew Clements has created a book that doesn't fall back into the old good vs. bad/teacher vs. student riff we all know so well. Though a book that is written with fairly young readers in mind, it successfully renders huge themes in bite size portions.

Nick Allen is used to getting great ideas. Who could forget his fabulous third grade attempts to turn his classroom into a sunny tropical isle in the dead of winter? Or his successful utilization of bird calls to annoy a fourth grade prof? But now Nick has come across a real challenge and her name is Granger. Mrs. Granger. As the woman in charge of the elementary school's language arts, Mrs. Granger is a true aficionado of the wonders of the dictionary. After tangling, and losing, with the clever teacher, Nick springs upon a brilliant idea. Why not add his own little word to the world's vocabulary? The idea comes to him in a flash, and before you know it he's grabbed the nearest pen and renamed it "frindle". As Mrs. Granger retaliates, defending (what in her mind is) the perfectly serviceable and already existing word "pen", frindle's popularity and publicity grows and grows. Yet in the end, it seems as though Nick was playing into Mrs. Granger's plans all along.

Accompanied by the really well wrought and beautifully designed illustrations of Brian Selznick, the book is just a low-key amusing look at how words affect people. Clements includes an array of interesting facts and ideas, some of which even adults will find themselves astounded by. For example, the book states that in 1791 a Dublin theater manager made up the word, "quiz" on a bet and that this word was (until the creation of "frindle") the only word in the English language made up for no particular reason. I tried to ascertain if this was true by glancing through my impossibly old Webster's Third New International Dictionary. When I looked up "quiz" I hit the following sentence: Unknown origin. That's proof enough for me, though I'm sure a glance through the OED would clear everything up. And how many books written with middle readers in mind give you such clever facts couched in an interesting story? I was delighted with the characters in this book. From clever Nick and his ideas to Mrs. Granger, an adult who is truly an intelligent match. Any villainy this book presents later turns out to be no more than a clever ruse. So kudos for giving teachers the credit they deserve at last! Kudos indeed.

A good pairing of books of this reading level with similar protagonists would be "Frindle" and the slightly more recent Lois Lowry offering "Gooney Bird Greene". Both books observe the use of language and how it affects us and both have clever red headed protagonists that defy all expectations. I doubt you could find two better books to present to kids with the hopes of getting them involved in reading. I give "Frindle" an especially warm recommendation and I am sure kids will be inspired by it. Go! Read! Enjoy!