Genre: Realistic Fiction
Publisher: Aladdin
Copyright Date: 1998
Number of Pages:112
Reading Level: 9-12
Summary:
Nick Allen is a clever kid. He isn't disrespectful, but he does have a way of bending the rules. For instance: In the third grade he turned his room into a tropical island. He had all the kids in class make palm trees out of construction paper and they taped them to their desks. The next day, everyone came to class in beach clothes and Nick made a volleyball net out of yarn and the boys shirts and he brought ten cups of sand and spread it out on the floor. The teacher loved it, but the janitors... not so much. So, that fun ended. Then, in the fourth grade, he had just got done learning about blackbirds on TV and how they have a unique peep they chirp when danger is near so the hunter can't tell where it was coming from. He was sitting in class and saw that his teacher's nose looked like the beak on a blackbird and so he let out a shrill peep. The teacher couldn't figure out where it came from... from then on he did it once or twice a week and his teacher never figured out who it was.
Then fifth grade rolled around. For seventh hour english he got Mrs. Granger as a teacher. He had heard about Mrs. Granger. She was a small, and wore her white hair in a bun. She had eyes that could make you feel like a speck of dust. She never missed a day of school, students swore she had x-ray vision, and she loved the dictionary. She would always make kids look things up in the dictionary. Parents were required to buy their kids a specific dictionary at the beginning of the school year.
On the first day of school Nick decided to try some of his delaying homework tactics on her. He would wait until the last 2 minutes of class, before the teacher had a chance to assign homework and he would ask a deep question that she was sure to answer, thus, forgetting to assign homework. He did it, all the students knew what was going on and they watched excitedly. He asked Mrs. Granger where all the words in the dictionary came from. She knew exactly what he was doing so she assigned him to write a report about the origins of words. Extra homework! He wrote his report alright, he made it 45 minutes long. Thus, hoping to delay the class an extra day. She listen attentively throughout the whole thing. When he was done she crammed the whole hour's lesson into 10 minutes. Then he asked the same question as he did the day before, "where do words come from?" The answer she gave changed his whole life. She explained that words are words because we, as human beings, say they are words.
That day Nick had the idea to change the name of a pen to a frindle. He told a small group of friends and they made a pact never to say the word pen again but to say frindle instead. They did. It worked by the end of the day they got the whole class saying frindle for pen. Words spread, and soon a few other people in the school were saying it. Then, Mrs Granger, angry that he was using words so lightly, put up a sign that said, if any student is caught saying the word frindle, they will be put into detention. Well, that did it. That got the whole school saying it. within a few days she had a classroom full of students in detention. The punishment was, they had to write 100 times "I am writing this sentence with a pen." But most of the students wrote frindle for pen. Pretty soon the word became so popular and there were so many people staying after school to write sentences that they had to arrange late buses to take the kids home.
One day, Mrs. Granger asked Nick if she could talk to him. She asked him, "don't you think this has gone far enough, aren't you ready to stop this?" and Nick replied that he wished he could, but the word wasn't his anymore. It was every one's. He would stop it if he could, but it couldn't be stopped. She pulled out a fat envelope, and she said I am going to send you this envelope when all of this is over, and she had him write the date across the seal on the back so he would know she didn't open it.
As time passed, a rich inventor in town made a Frindle brand. He made pens, shirts, and other merchandise that said frindle on them and they sold rapidly. A reporter got wind of all this and reported the story on the news. Nick ended up on CNN, NBC, The Tonight Show With David Letterman, and other news program. It spread across the country.
Just as things were settling down in Nick's town, the word was rapidly getting more popular throughout the country. The man who made the Frindle Merchandise was rolling in the doe and he was giving 1/3 of his earnings to Nick's father who put it in a savings account for Nick. By the time Nick was ready to go to college, he was wealthy. His word was still being used all over the country.
While in college, Nick got a package in the mail. It was from Mrs. Granger. She had sent him a dictionary with a page marked in it. With the dictionary came the fat envelope that he had put the date on ten years before. He opened it up and inside was a letter that explained what when he opened this, it meant that his word had made it into the dictionary. She told him how proud she was of him and reiterated the meaning and importance of words. With the letter was her favorite pen and in the cap was a small note that said "frindle". He opened to the marked page and there it was, frindle. Mrs Granger told him that this is the dictionary she requires her students to buy and she uses his story as an example of the miracle of words.
He sent her a new pen and on it was inscribed a note to her that said, she can name it anything that she wants to.
Who would benefit from reading this book/who would I recommend this book to?
This is a good book to get kids interested in words. It shows a clever story of a kid who made a difference in the English language and he did it by listening to what his teacher said and learning from it. Language arts teachers could read this to their students.
What problems/conflicts could this book potentially cause?
If you do read this to your students you have to be prepared for a lot of new words to pop up.
My Reaction:
I loved this book. It is so cute and clever. I knew kids like Nick when I was in school. He is the kind of kid that is friends with everyone but he is happy to be himself. I think that everyone should read it. It was an easy read that made me happy!
Publisher: Aladdin
Copyright Date: 1998
Number of Pages:112
Reading Level: 9-12
Summary:
Nick Allen is a clever kid. He isn't disrespectful, but he does have a way of bending the rules. For instance: In the third grade he turned his room into a tropical island. He had all the kids in class make palm trees out of construction paper and they taped them to their desks. The next day, everyone came to class in beach clothes and Nick made a volleyball net out of yarn and the boys shirts and he brought ten cups of sand and spread it out on the floor. The teacher loved it, but the janitors... not so much. So, that fun ended. Then, in the fourth grade, he had just got done learning about blackbirds on TV and how they have a unique peep they chirp when danger is near so the hunter can't tell where it was coming from. He was sitting in class and saw that his teacher's nose looked like the beak on a blackbird and so he let out a shrill peep. The teacher couldn't figure out where it came from... from then on he did it once or twice a week and his teacher never figured out who it was.
Then fifth grade rolled around. For seventh hour english he got Mrs. Granger as a teacher. He had heard about Mrs. Granger. She was a small, and wore her white hair in a bun. She had eyes that could make you feel like a speck of dust. She never missed a day of school, students swore she had x-ray vision, and she loved the dictionary. She would always make kids look things up in the dictionary. Parents were required to buy their kids a specific dictionary at the beginning of the school year.
On the first day of school Nick decided to try some of his delaying homework tactics on her. He would wait until the last 2 minutes of class, before the teacher had a chance to assign homework and he would ask a deep question that she was sure to answer, thus, forgetting to assign homework. He did it, all the students knew what was going on and they watched excitedly. He asked Mrs. Granger where all the words in the dictionary came from. She knew exactly what he was doing so she assigned him to write a report about the origins of words. Extra homework! He wrote his report alright, he made it 45 minutes long. Thus, hoping to delay the class an extra day. She listen attentively throughout the whole thing. When he was done she crammed the whole hour's lesson into 10 minutes. Then he asked the same question as he did the day before, "where do words come from?" The answer she gave changed his whole life. She explained that words are words because we, as human beings, say they are words.
That day Nick had the idea to change the name of a pen to a frindle. He told a small group of friends and they made a pact never to say the word pen again but to say frindle instead. They did. It worked by the end of the day they got the whole class saying frindle for pen. Words spread, and soon a few other people in the school were saying it. Then, Mrs Granger, angry that he was using words so lightly, put up a sign that said, if any student is caught saying the word frindle, they will be put into detention. Well, that did it. That got the whole school saying it. within a few days she had a classroom full of students in detention. The punishment was, they had to write 100 times "I am writing this sentence with a pen." But most of the students wrote frindle for pen. Pretty soon the word became so popular and there were so many people staying after school to write sentences that they had to arrange late buses to take the kids home.
One day, Mrs. Granger asked Nick if she could talk to him. She asked him, "don't you think this has gone far enough, aren't you ready to stop this?" and Nick replied that he wished he could, but the word wasn't his anymore. It was every one's. He would stop it if he could, but it couldn't be stopped. She pulled out a fat envelope, and she said I am going to send you this envelope when all of this is over, and she had him write the date across the seal on the back so he would know she didn't open it.
As time passed, a rich inventor in town made a Frindle brand. He made pens, shirts, and other merchandise that said frindle on them and they sold rapidly. A reporter got wind of all this and reported the story on the news. Nick ended up on CNN, NBC, The Tonight Show With David Letterman, and other news program. It spread across the country.
Just as things were settling down in Nick's town, the word was rapidly getting more popular throughout the country. The man who made the Frindle Merchandise was rolling in the doe and he was giving 1/3 of his earnings to Nick's father who put it in a savings account for Nick. By the time Nick was ready to go to college, he was wealthy. His word was still being used all over the country.
While in college, Nick got a package in the mail. It was from Mrs. Granger. She had sent him a dictionary with a page marked in it. With the dictionary came the fat envelope that he had put the date on ten years before. He opened it up and inside was a letter that explained what when he opened this, it meant that his word had made it into the dictionary. She told him how proud she was of him and reiterated the meaning and importance of words. With the letter was her favorite pen and in the cap was a small note that said "frindle". He opened to the marked page and there it was, frindle. Mrs Granger told him that this is the dictionary she requires her students to buy and she uses his story as an example of the miracle of words.
He sent her a new pen and on it was inscribed a note to her that said, she can name it anything that she wants to.
Who would benefit from reading this book/who would I recommend this book to?
This is a good book to get kids interested in words. It shows a clever story of a kid who made a difference in the English language and he did it by listening to what his teacher said and learning from it. Language arts teachers could read this to their students.
What problems/conflicts could this book potentially cause?
If you do read this to your students you have to be prepared for a lot of new words to pop up.
My Reaction:
I loved this book. It is so cute and clever. I knew kids like Nick when I was in school. He is the kind of kid that is friends with everyone but he is happy to be himself. I think that everyone should read it. It was an easy read that made me happy!
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