Hi guys! Today, I will be writing about a book called” Frindle“. It is by Andrew Clements. It’s really good! The book is about a kid called Nick that is about to enter 5th grade. He is worried about his language arts teacher, Mrs. Granger. Nick heard that she was very strict. In 3rd grade, he would do a lot of, how can I say it, interesting experiments. Once, he turned one of his teachers classrooms into a tropical island. The funny thing is that his teacher, Mrs. Deaver, didn’t get mad, in fact, she was delighted! On page 2, it says that Mrs. Deaver said, “That’s so cute!” when her students made the tropical island. But it was all Nick’s idea. In 5th grade, again, he tried to distract Mrs. Granger. When Nick’s hand shot up, Mrs. Granger called on him. On page 15, it shows that Mrs. Granger said, “Yes Nicholas?” “Mrs. Granger, you have so many dictionaries in this room, and that huge one especially . . . where did all those words come from? Did they just get copied from other dictionaries? It sure is a big book.” said Nick. But Nick didn’t know how Mrs. Granger rolls, so she gave him an assignment, due the next day, to do an oral report about, “all those words”. Nick didn’t give up. He had another idea, it was a way to waste time in language arts class. So he wrote the report, and brought his dictionary that you have to buy because Mrs. Granger said to in the middle of the summer. In language arts class the next day, Nick read his pretty long report, and then, to make it even longer, he read a mini-biography  from his dictionary about the person who invented the first dictionary ever. That, was mission complete for Nick. Now, there was barely any time left in class, Mrs. Granger was so mad after class. I would want to see her face in real life when she’s that mad! When Nick missed the bus, he decided to walk home. On page 34, Nick was remembering when Mrs. Granger said, “Who says dog means dog? You do, Nicholas.” in class that day. Then, Nick had an idea, an idea that would make the whole story as exciting as it is! He thought, who said frindle means pen? You do, Nicholas. He walked home with his friend, Janet. When Janet dropped her pen, Nick picked it up, and said, “Here’s your . . . frindle.” on page 35. And this is where the exciting part begins! After that, Nick made him and some of his friends, one at a time, to go into a store and ask for a frindle. The first few times, the cashier didn’t get what it meant, but after, she always went to get one of the pens. Nick decided to launch the word in school! He signed an oath with six other friends, the ones that asked for a frindle from the cashier, that they will use the word frindle instead of pen, forever. The day after that, Nick made a whole play about how he lost his, “frindle” and his friend had an extra one. After school, Nick had a conversation with Mrs. Granger about the play. He annoyed her even more than he already did! The next day, it was picture day. When it was time for the class picture, on page 42, the photographer said, “Say cheese!” but everyone held up a pen and said, “frindle!” Then, Mrs. Granger set a petition on page 43 that said: Anyone who is heard using the word frindle instead of the word pen will stay after school and write this sentence one hundred times: I am writing this punishment with a pen. -Mrs. Granger   But everyone just used it even more, and after school, there was so many people at Lincoln Elementary that you could barely even count! Most people wrote frindle instead of pen in the punishment! Then, one evening, the principal, Mrs. Chatham, came to Nick’s house to talk about the new word. Nick was appalled when his parents were on his side as him. He decided that it was like a big chess game! Soon after that, a writer from the local newspaper, The Westfield Gazette, came to the school to learn about the new word. It then became an article in one of their newspapers. His mom was really mad when she read the article. When one of the richest guys in Westfield got the paper and read the article, he had an idea. He started to sell pens that said, “Frindle” on them. The customers bought so many of them, that the stores couldn’t keep them in stock! Nick was even interviewed on the CBS Evening News show! Bud Lawrence, the guy that sold the pens, sold different items that said frindle on them as well. After they went out of stock from the pens! They sold erasers, and even shirts now. Bud told Nick’s dad that Nick would get 30% of the money that Bud got from selling the items. Then, life settled back to normal in Westfield, but frindle still didn’t go away. It was just a normal word now. Like hat or ball, it was normal, simple as that. Some of the teachers were even using the word now as well! Nick had different ideas to launch as well after frindle became a normal word, but none of them were even close to as good as “frindle” was. But what happens in the end? You’ll have to find that out yourself! This book is realistic fiction. I know this because this could happen in real life.

The character that I was most interested in in Frindle was Nick. Nick is fresh. I know this because from page 24 all the way to page 27, he was reading a report that took almost the whole class time to finish! And even better, he did it on purpose! And Mrs. Granger had to stop him in the middle of his report! It would have probably taken him more than the whole class time to finish his report! Mrs. Granger was so mad, I could imagine her eyes popping off that day! Another time was after he made a big show on how he lost his “Frindle”. Mrs. Granger wanted to have a private chat with him. On page 40, it says, “Nicholas? I’d like to have . . . a word with you,” and she emphasized the word word. Nick’s mouth felt dry, and he gulped, but his mind stayed clear. He walked up to her desk. “Yes Mrs. Granger?” “It’s a funny idea, Nicholas, but I will not have my class disrupted again. Is that clear?” Her eyes were lit up, but it was mostly light, not much heat. “Idea? What idea?” asked Nick, he tried to make his eyes as blank as possible. A little bit later in the conversation, on page 41, it says, “But I really didn’t have a frindle with me,” said Nick, amazed at his own bravery. At the end of the conversation, it says that Nick said, “And I promise I won’t ever forget my frindle again. Bye.” That shows that Nick is fresh. Nick is also very clever. One way to show that he is clever is that he made up the word “frindle”! Nick was also clever by doing a little play with John on page 39. Both of those clever ideas were for a purpose. Nick is complicated. I was wondering throughout the book, how does he get all these ideas? I think that he is very complex. The story usually takes place in Nick’s school in 7th period, which is language arts class. Mrs. Granger teaches that class. That really changes the mood to the story. That is also where Nick started “frindle”. The setting is significant to the story because that’s where he launched his word. If you read the book, you would see how big of a connection the school is to the story, and how without the school, the story would be much different.  

I think that the life lesson is that you can find good from everything, you just have to search hard, and you will find it. The reason that a pen keeps on coming up in the book is because frindle is the is the word that he exchanged pen with. There was no big issue or tragedy in this book. I felt really good that I read this book. I think it’s a must read book! It really made me laugh when I read it, it was so funny! His ideas and his cleverness was very interesting. I would definitely recommend reading this book. I would recommend this book to upper elementary students up until middle school students. So guys, you should look at my next post. It’s going to be very soon. Bye!