[LISTENED TO: April 2013] Frindle
I went to the Princeton Public Library looking for audio books for the kids (we’ve exhausted most of our town library’s books). There was a nice new selection of audio books at PPL, and this was one of them. I wasn’t familiar with the story but Sarah knew it already.
So in Frindle, (which was Clements’ first chapter book after several picture books), Nick Allen is upset to find out that he has Mrs Granger as his English teacher this year. You see, Nick is beloved by his classmates for his ability to ask the perfect and perfectly timed question that will distract the teacher so he or she forgets to give homework. He has even sidetracked teachers so that they barely taught any lessons at all. But Mrs Granger has been around and has a reputation as being a really really tough teacher.
One the first day, Nick comes up with the perfect question. He learns that Mrs Granger loves dictionaries–she has one propped up on a lectern in the front of the class–so he waits until there’s about six minutes left and he asks her how all those words got in the dictionary. It was genius, it was brilliant. It didn’t work. She turned it around on him and asked him to give do research and give a report about the question. Tomorrow. Ack!
Nick is distraught. But then he decides to get really into it. And the next day he gives a presentation that lasts over thirty minutes. Mrs Granger knows what he’s up to but she is impressed by his tenacity. They have a kind of friendly stand off. But she makes a small comment that sets the rest of the book in motion. She tells Nick that it is him, and really everyone, who decides what words mean. If everyone agrees that a word means something, then it does.
And a light goes off in Nick’s head.
He decides that from then on he is going to call a pen a “frindle.” And he does. And other kids think it’s funny and start doing it too. Mrs Granger is not amused at this disrespect for the language and begins punishing kids for using the word. Which, of course, means that more and more kids use it. And it gets bigger and bigger.
Before it goes too far, Mrs Granger tells Nick that she has written him a letter which she will give to him when their “war” over the word is over.
But it is far from over. And through a series of small events–an entire school getting detention, the second grade holding up a frindle in their class picture, and an anonymous letter to the local paper–the story sprials from local concern into national human interest story. There’s even a local entrepreneur who trademarks the name ‘frindle” and tries to make some money off of it by selling novelty frindles.
What delighted me most about the story was the way it went from a silly, funny story to one that talked about the consequences of your actions. But also about how being aware of the consequences of your actions can actually cause you to censor your thoughts and ideas. When Nick thinks about other ideas he realizes how much frindle took off and he thinks twice about suggesting them. And his teachers notice that Nick is not quite as bright eyed as he once was.
But what surprised me the most was the way the story ended. Mrs Granger eventually sends Nick the letter and it changes things about the story. And finally when Nick becomes aware of all he has done, the story goes from being funny and thoughtful to being incredibly touching. And yes, I even teared up at the end. Not what I expected from a book about a kid trying to get out of homework. Although I have to admit I think the kids started to lose interest as the story grew more serious at the end. But that’s understandable, it wasn’t quite as funny anymore, and the ending may have been over their heads.
Nevertheless, I thought it was a great story. The audio book was read by Keith Nobbs, who did a fine job. I don’t really have anything to say about him, so he must have been the ideal reader–not standing out in any way.
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