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#38 Frindle by Andrew Clements (1996)
51 points
This book touches me as a teacher, and I can relate to it from the perspective of the students. I can’t read this to my students without choking up over the letter from the teacher. – Dee Sypherd
If you’re a children’s librarian then you are probably well and truly familiar with the gaps that consistently appear in the Andrew Clements portion of your fiction shelves. Talk about a guy who has made his name memorable to kids. If they’re not devouring School Story then they’re giggling over No Talking or A Week in the Woods. And it all started with Frindle. A little book. A little idea. A title that never received an ALA Awards and yet is one of the most memorable titles to be released in the last 15 years.
The plot from the publisher reads, “Is Nick Allen a troublemaker? He really just likes to liven things up at school — and he’s always had plenty of great ideas. When Nick learns some interesting information about how words are created, suddenly he’s got the inspiration for his best plan ever – the frindle. Who says a pen has to be called a pen? Why not call it a frindle? Things begin innocently enough as Nick gets his friends to use the new word. Then other people in town start saying frindle. Soon the school is in an uproar, and Nick has become a local hero. His teacher wants Nick to put an end to all this nonsense, but the funny thing is frindle doesn’t belong to Nick anymore. The new word is spreading across the country, and there’s nothing Nick can do to stop it.”
Where did he get the idea for the book? Well, according to Clements’ website, the idea of creating a word like “frindle” was all part of a talk he’d give when he visited schools. “I was teaching a little about the way words work, and about what words really are. I was trying to explain to them how words only mean what we decide they mean. They didn’t believe me when I pointed to a fat dictionary and told them that ordinary people like them and like me had made up all the words in that book—and that new words get made up all the time.” When a kid challenged him he had a ready answer. Says Clements, “The kids loved that idea, and for a couple of years I told that same story every time I went to visit and talk at a school or a library. Then one day as I was sitting at home, sifting through my life, looking for a story idea, I wondered, ‘What would happen if a kid started using a new word, and other kids really liked it, but his English teacher didn’t?’ So the idea for the book was born…”
A lot of the charm of this and other Andrew Clements books is entirely in the characters. As Lisa Von Drasek said of it in the New York Times, “His teachers aren’t ”Charlie Brown”-type monoliths. They’re individuals with their own quirks and anxieties, and they don’t always agree. Clements matter-of-factly demonstrates that teachers can be petty and single-minded; a principal can apologize to a student for overreacting. His kids are cruel, kind, bullying, angry, joyful, delightful, tall, short, impulsive, thoughtful, smart, funny. He captures a broad spectrum of human behavior; the gossipy mean girl can also be surprisingly generous.”
- This is a lot of fun. If you’re a teacher (or a parent or a librarian, for that matter) why not play a little Frindle Jeopardy with your kids?
By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: May 3, 2012
Enter to win a copy of Because Your Mommy Loves You and Because Your Daddy Loves You by Andrew Clements and illustrated by R.W. Alley.
Perfect for Mother’s Day and every day after, Because Your Mommy Loves You is as heartwarming as its predecessor, Because Your Daddy Loves You.
Giveaway begins May 3, 2012, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends May 31, 2012, at 11:59 P.M. PST.
Reading level: Ages 3-8
Overview: In this sweet companion book to Because Your Daddy Loves You, a little boy and his mom go on a hiking trip and camp out under the stars. Mommy is as calm and reassuring, but also goes far to foster her son’s independence in an encouraging and loving way. As heartwarming as its predecessor, this read-aloud book is sure to become a family favorite.
About the author: Andrew Clements is the author of many best-selling books, among them the middle grade novel Frindle. He lives in Westborough, Massachusetts, and can be found at www.andrewclements.com.
About the illustrator: R. W. Alley is the illustrator of many beloved picture books, including the Paddington Bear series. He lives in Barrington, Rhode Island. Visit him at www.rwalley.com.
How to enter:
- Fill out the required fields below
- Maximum entries: Three (3)
Giveaway Rules:
- Shipping Guidelines: This book giveaway is open to all participants with a US mailing addresses.
- Giveaway begins May 3, 2012, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends May 31, 2012, at 11:59 P.M. PST, when all entries must be received. No purchase necessary. See official rules for details. View our privacy policy.
Prizing courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.
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Four stories kids can relate to no matter what school or century they're in.
Two are by a master of school stories, one is by a newcomer who writes like she's written them for years and another is from an acclaimed writer-illustrator team.
Troublemaker, by Andrew Clements,
Atheneum, $16.99, ages 8-12, 160 pages, 2011. Clayton Hensley thinks the more trouble he gets into at school, the prouder his older brother Mitchell will be. After all, Mitchell was a big problem when he was in school and now he's even gone to jail (for mouthing off at judge). Clayton's sure his own latest infraction at school, drawing a picture of the principal as a jackass, will tickle Mitchell to no end. After all, it's as fearless as anything Mitchell ever did in school and it's clever too. But when Mitchell returns home after serving time, he doesn't sound like himself. Jail was scary, he says; he's done messing up and he's not going to let Clayton ruin his life either. He tells Clayton it's time to do things the smart way; he's even got a plan to do just that. But first Clayton's going to have to trust Mitchell. And by trust, that means change in ways Clayton never imagined. But can he? Will acting "goody-goody" be too much for Clayton? Will he be happy not goofing off? Clements has an amazing ability to make readers want to root for any character, no matter how wrongly they behave or how mean they act. From page 1, readers are drawn to Clayton, despite his smart-alecky disdain for others. And as he embarks on Mitchell's plan to reform his behavior, they cheer him on and even stand by him when he lapses. This is a book every principal should have stacked up in the office to hand out to kids who've lost their way. A joy to read, it's an empowering book for troubled kids, and eye-opening one for anyone who knows who they are but doesn't really know them.
Fear Itself (Book 2, Benjamin Pratt & the Keepers School), by Andrew Clements, illustrated by Adam Stower,
Atheneum, $14.99, ages 7-10, 240 pages, 2011. Benjamin Pratt and his friend Jill have just 24 days to stop a developer from ripping down their old seaside school to make way for a theme park. But with Jill getting discouraged about how to stop it and a new shifty-eyed janitor watching their every move, what chance do they have? After all, they are just kids. Well, be that as it may be, Ben isn't about to give up. He's a
By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: August 23, 2010
The first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Jon Scieszka, has an exciting, new book: Spaceheadz.
To celebrate, one extremely lucky winner will receive a Simon & Schuster MG book pack, including:
Spaceheadz by Jon Scieszka
Brixton Bros: The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett
Amelia Rules! The Tweenage Guide to Not Being Unpopular by Jimmy Gownley
Nightmare at the Book Fair by Dan Gutman
Keepers of the School: We the Children by Andrew Clements
Reading level: Middle Grade
Spaceheadz overview: The perfect combination of the age old experience of holding and pouring over a physical book with newest media technology that kids love!
Michael K. just started fifth grade at a new school. As if that wasn’t hard enough, the kids he seems to have made friends with apparently aren’t kids at all. They are aliens. Real aliens who have invaded our planet in the form of school children and a hamster. They have a mission to complete: to convince 3,140,001 kids to BE SPHDZ. But with a hamster as their leader, “kids” who talk like walking advertisements, and Michael K as their first convert, will the SPHDZ be able to keep their cover and pull off their assignment?
Jon Scieszka
About the author: Jon Scieszka is the first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, named by the Library of Congress. He is the author of some of the best known and funniest books written for children including The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, The Time Warp Trio series and the Caldecott Honor Book The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. He is the creator of the Trucktown series, of which
By:
Bianca Schulze,
on 4/11/2010
Blog:
The Children's Book Review
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I was able to get a lot of "audio" reading done this month, finishing three, and really loving two of those three. Head on over to and link your audiobook reviews at Audiosynced, this month at Abby (the) Librarian.
Frindle by Andrew Clements
I know, I know, I'm a librarian and I have yet to make my way through Andrew Clements' books. Each one that I've actually read, I've loved, and this one was probably my favorite. The reader, John Fleming, did a great job and kept me completely engaged from start to finish.
This is a quick read and a great choice for a family road trip. You could make it through a couple of books this length in a few hours.
Audiobook borrowed from my local library
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
I'm going to really push this one on you! I've read the book and was just using the audio version as a refresher in anticipation of The Dead Tossed Waves. I didn't count on being completely taken in by the reader, Vane Millon, and feeling as if I was really experiencing the story for the first time. This reader is the BEST reader I have ever come across and I'm going to be frantically searching for more titles she's read.
One of the few times I'll actually say that the audio version was better than the actual book. Loved it!
Audiobook borrowed from my local library
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Unfortunately, this is the one that I didn't enjoy quite as much as the others. I know that so many of you just love this book and it may be because I listened to the audio rather than reading, but I really felt the entire story was just ok. Almost cheesy at points. And the reader, Eden Reigel, sounded about 9 years old through the whole book, even when Ella was almost out of her teens.
Just not great for me. But I know that there are lots of Ella fans out there, so go check it out for yourself!
Audiobook borrowed from my local library
I just finished two new middle grade books, by two of my favorite authors, each just as good as I was hoping. Andrew Clements and Peggy Gifford are almost always crowd pleasers and both of these will appeal to your kiddos and yourself!
In Extra Credit, readers meet Abby and Saheed, two typical kids with families, schooling, friends, and hobbies, but they live across the world from each other. Abby lives in Illinois and Saheed lives in Afghanistan. When an extra credit project brings the two kids together as pen pals, each has the ability to learn more about the other's culture, country, and families, and share in a bit of a secret as well.
Written by Andrew Clements, this one takes current events and realistic characters and blends them together in an entertaining novel. Boys will like this just as much as girls, which is one of my favorite things about Clements and his manner of producing novels. He is a go-to author for parents looking for realistic fiction for their boys and girls.
If you haven't yet picked up a Moxy Maxwell book, go do so now! These are just such fun books and author Peggy Gifford makes each one funny (or funnier) than the last. We're now on the third book featuring the lively and precocious, Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Practicing the Piano (But She Does Love Being in Recitals). Ah Moxy.
In this hilarious edition to the series, Moxy wants to do every BUT practice for her piano recital. She wants to make fur trim for the cape she's going to wear, try on her crown, practice singing just in case someone decides they want her to sing to really wow the crowd, you know, the usual. She gets into lots of trouble, has a starnge incident with dots on her sister's face, and of course, involves her best friend, Max, in all the antics.
Middle grade readers will really love Moxy, if they haven't met her all ready. She's fun, innocent in the way that she really doesn't know what she's doing is wacky, and so, so funny! If I've learned anything from these books, it's to never give children scissors!
Both of these books are great for that transitional stage between young readers and the middle grade reading level. Though they are chapter books, the content is perfect for younger kids reading above their age level. Nice choices for family or classroom ongoing read alouds.
To learn more or to purchase either book, click on the book covers above to link to Amazon.
Extra Credit
Andrew Clements
192 pages
Middle Grade
Atheneum
9781416949299
June 2009
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Practicing Piano (But She Does Love Being In Recitals)
Peggy Gifford
192 pages
Middle Grade
Schwartz & Wade
9780375844881
August 2009
We spent our Sunday in Montreal enjoying three of my favorite things...food, the performing arts, and a great book.
First, we went for dim sum at La Maison Kam Fung (yes, that's the right name...stop laughing. That's what happens when you have a Chinatown in the middle of a French city). Our table was littered with empty bamboo steamers after we consumed huge amounts of shaomai (steamed pork dumplings) and har gow (steamed shrimp dumplings).
After brunch, it was off to Place des Arts to see...
...Swan Lake on Ice, performed by the Imperial Ice Stars. We bought the tickets as a Christmas gift for the kids and weren't quite sure what to expect. We were absolutely floored. This show was an incredible marriage of theater, ballet, and figure skating. It was truly stunning, from start to finish. I checked the tour schedule, and it looks like there's just one more stop in North America -- in Toronto. If you live anywhere near there, it's definitely worth checking out.
On the ride home, we finished a read-aloud of Andrew Clements' No Talking, a lively, funny book that can be enjoyed equally by a six-year-old, an eleven-year-old, and a couple parents. We spent the rest of the evening trying to talk only in three-word sentences (if you've read the book, you understand). Thanks, Andrew - your characters were fabulous company in the car, and the game they inspired ended our weekend perfectly -- with terrific fits of laughter.
by Andrew Clements
The basic plot: A couple of 5th graders decide to see if their class can go 48 hours without talking. Boys against girls. If a teacher addresses you, you may respond with the maximum of three words.
No Talking is an adorable story. It's a fun concept, and the author takes the idea and moves it along at a quick, easy pace. I loved the sweet ending. It was very much a "happy book" - one that leaves you with a smile. Highly enjoyable . . . it almost made me want to try the kids' experiment, too.
Dogku By
Andrew Clements Illustrated by
Tim Bowers
Simon & Schuster, 2007
I am a big fan of haiku books, especially ones that appeal to kids. Every year I teach haiku in the fall, mainly because my local reading association has a kids’ haiku contest. I always have some kids that enter in the contest. I purchased this story told in haiku this year so that I could use it in my 4th grade classroom.
Many of my collections of haiku are collections of haiku. That is, they stand alone and are not related to the other haiku in the book, except through a common theme. This book by Andrew Clements tells the story of a dog that a family adopts through haiku. Each haiku tells a piece of the story. Most of these haiku are very simple, geared for a younger audience, unlike some of my haiku collections, which have more profound messages.
I love this book! I like haiku that are connected in some one and that tell a story. This was no easy feat to write, I’m sure. Plus, I think it would be a great way for younger students to really get a kick out of haiku.
My favorite haiku from the book:
Scratch, sniff, eat, yawn, nap.
Dreams of rabbits and running.
Could life be sweeter?
Andrew Clements includes two other haiku and an explanation of what haiku is in his author's note at the back.
My haiku that describes this book:
Dog wants family
Haiku extravaganza
Clements hits homerun
How many middle grade mysteries have you read this year?
I've read one. Uno. Less than two and more than zero. So my question to you is this: Mysteries sell really really well sometimes, yes? Chasing Vermeer, for example, made its money back and it wasn't even that great of a mystery. And sure, the first Enola Holmes book didn't get the attention it so surely deserved, but by and large I get a ton of kids coming into my branch asking for mysteries. And nine times out of ten I have to point them in the direction of the series books because middle grade mysteries are few and far between. Why is this? Are they hard to write? Are publishers just blind to this trend? What gives?
All this is to say that the Edgar Awards were announced last week. And for the young 'uns, two wins.
YA Winner:
Buried by Robin Merrow MacCready
Juvenile Winner:
Room One: a mystery or two by Andrew Clements
Well done all around then. That would be a fun committee to be on, don't you think? The juvenile Edgar Award committee. I'd like that. And for an encapsulation of the evening of the awards you may indulge yourself in either the Edgar bulletpoints or first-time children's novelist Eric Berlin's take right over here.
Room One: a mystery or two by Andrew Clements, 2006
Ted Hammond is one of only nine students in his one room school and the only 6th grader in Plattsford, Nebraska. The farming community is shrinking and the school is going to close because of the small enrollment. The loss of the school will be the final blow to the town.
Ted loves to read mysteries and the town librarian Mrs. Coughlin has introduced him to interlibrary loan. He reads 2-3 mysteries a week and excels at solving them before the last chapter.
One morning while delivering newspapers he think he sees a face in the window of an abandoned farmhouse on his route. Using the detective skills he has learned, Ted sets out to solve the mystery. While assembling clues, he discovers a family camping in the old house. Alexa a girl about his age asks him to keep her family's presence in the house a secret. He reluctantly agrees then devotes himself to their welfare by bringing them food.
Clements always writes with amazing candor and feeling about the adults in children's lives. He is clear eyed about the sometimes edgy relationship between teachers and their students. Ted confides in his teacher, Mrs. Mitchell about the family forcing her into an ethical dilemma. She does not want to break a promise to a student but she knows she must report the family.
This low key162 page story is rounded out by an epilogue that tells "the rest of the story" in a conclusion that is very satisfying for the family and Ted's town.
There is much about Andrew Clements that impresses me. His website quotes him, "It is a privilege to write for children." His website (which needs updating) has a letter that he sends home to parents following school visits. I thought this paragraph was lovely.
We’re In Charge
When we read, we decide when, where, how long, and about what. One of the few places on earth that it is still possible to experience an instant sense of freedom and privacy is anywhere you open up a good book and begin to read. When we read silently, we are alone with our own thoughts and one other voice. We can take our time, consider, evaluate, and digest what we read—with no commercial interruptions, no emotional music or special effects manipulation. And in spite of the advances in electronic information exchange, the book is still the most important medium for presenting ideas of substance and value, still the only real home of literature.
#38 Frindle by Andrew Clements (1996)
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I listened to Forest of Hands and Teeth and absolutely loved it. Now I am listening to The Dead Tossed Waves and can't wait to see how this book turns out.
Stumbled upon your blog and had to say "hello." I'm a Children's librarian, too. Love your blog title!!
Hi Dear
These books are very useful to everyone.Books give the good knowledge for all.So i like very much in this blog................
Patchwork Books
We listened to FRINDLE on a roadtrip over Thanksgiving. It made me cry.
I love good audio book recommendations! I'll have to find Forest of Hands and Teeth because that's one I've wanted to read. I have heard similar opinions about the audio of Ella Enchanted. I'll know to pass on that one.
Oh I love Frindle! I read it out loud to my 8th graders YEARS ago and they got such a kick out of it. Just to prove that it doesn't matter the age or level of "uncoolness" kids still like to be read to when the book is great!