Frindle by Andrew Clements

Title: Frindle

Author: Andrew Clements

Genre: Children's Fiction

Rating: 5/5 stars 

I remember reading this book when I was a kid and loving it. I chose this book for our study on New Hampshire, as that is where it is set, but it's one I would have happily read to my kids anyway.

Nick Allen is a good-natured, clever fifth-grade boy who likes to stir up a little fun at school. He is notorious for asking teachers "time-wasting" questions to get out of homework assignments. The other kids eagerly follow him in his mischievous endeavors. When Nick gets to his first fifth grade language arts class with Mrs. Granger, who is a strict/no-nonsense teacher, he attempts a time-wasting question and gets hit with a report instead. Mrs. Granger, above all else, loves words, specifically the dictionary. Nick does learn a lot from his assignment, but he quickly comes up with a new scheme to get under Mrs. Granger's skin. He decides to start calling his pen a "frindle." It's as simple as that, but the more it catches on, the more all the kids start to use the new word, the more resistance he gets from Mrs. Granger. They are soon locked in what Nick considers a "chess game" or a "war" over the word. The use of "frindle" spreads far and wide, and the results are much broader than Nick could have ever anticipated...  

I'll say right away that I'm in agreement with Mrs. Granger about word usage in general. Words have a history, and it does seem silly to randomly and meaninglessly make up new ones just for the sake of it. It's actually a very interesting field of study for linguists though, as it happens a lot more frequently than one might expect, and it seems like it is becoming more and more popular for the younger generations to make up words simply to annoy the older generations and have something of their own. 

That being said, this is an inspiring story. Nick is a natural-born leader, and with just a small amount of creativity and determination, he accomplishes something pretty significant. <spoiler> Of course, the kicker is that Mrs. Granger's involvement ends up being the key to it all. If she would not have resisted and made kids stay after school as punishment for using the word, the phenomenon likely would not have been a big deal and would have passed into obscurity. Nick becomes fabulously wealthy in the end and pays her back in such a beautiful way by establishing a scholarship fund in her name. </spoiler> 

I'm 29 years old, and I cried like a baby during the last three pages of this book (which somewhat surprised my kids!) It doesn't seem like the book is going to yank on your heartstrings like that in the beginning, but it's really quite a beautiful, heartfelt book. 

I would honestly recommend this to anyone, young and old. Kids will be inspired to do great things and be creative. Adults can read this in one sitting and likely will find the story heartwarming! 

Blackout by Connie Willis

Title: Blackout
Author: Connie Willis
Genre: Time Travel Historical Fiction
Rating: 4/5 stars

I can't ever bring myself to give Connie Willis's books 5 stars mostly because of the "looong walk for a short drink of water" feeling. but they are fairly entertaining and immersive. I love historical fiction/time travel books, so I've been listening to hers lately on Audible. I have already read/listened to Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog. Doomsday book was terribly depressing of course, and I am surprised I actually picked up the next one after reading it, but I found it worth it overall for the historical fiction value. I never really understood how horrible and tragic the Black Death was - I mean, I understood intellectually but not really emotionally. To Say Nothing of the Dog was COMPLTELY different, and I was entertained by it so much more. It was flat out delightful in comparison.
This book lands somewhere in between. There is the ever present "how do I get to my drop/my drop won't open?" theme. The "Mr. Dunworthy said/Mr. Dunworthy is coming to get me" theme, and overall hardship at every turn to accomplish even the simplest of things. The book starts out almost unbearably slow, as the others did. I'll admit I almost gave up. It felt at first like there were WAY too many perspectives to keep track of. There are five or six I guess, but only three really ended up going anywhere and finally converging. The last 20% of the book finally got interesting as things started to connect. Before then, it jumped around a lot and seemed overwhelming and confusing at times.
One thing that's missing from this book in comparison to Doomsday Book is that we don't get to know what's happening in Oxford. In Doomsday Book, we knew there is a pandemic going on that makes it impossible for them to keep Kivrin's drop open, which doesn't end up mattering anyway since she doesn't even know where it is, and everyone is dying around her. But in this book, there appears to be something majorly catastrophic going on, as none of the drops are opening and no retrieval teams are coming. The most engaging part about this book is the desire to know what the heck is happening in Oxford! The characters themselves aren't particularly interesting, though I do sympathize with them as much as I need to.
The narrator for the Audible book is actually pretty good, though at first I had to listen at .9 speed. She reads really fast. But I got used to it eventually and started looking forward to hearing her voice.



I did download the next book right away. This is one of the most painful cliffhangers I have had to experience recently.

The Young Man and the Sea by Rodman Philbrick

Title: The Young Man and the Sea
Author: Rodman Philbrick
Genre: Children's Adventure
Rating: 4/5 stars


We read this as part of a study of the state of Maine, and I thought it was overall a very enjoyable book.

Skiff Beaman has just lost his mom, and his dad is in the depths of despair, just lying on the couch all day drinking beer. Skiff is mostly left to his own devices and cooks and cleans most of the time. Their boat has sunk, and Skiff wants to get it fixed so he can go fishing, but it's going to cost $5000. So, industrious child that he is, Skiff hatches a plan to set all his father's lobster traps. Unfortunately, a horrible bully named Tyler cuts the line on his traps, making it impossible for Skiff to earn enough money that way. So he decides to go after a Bluefin Tuna, since getting only ONE of the gigantic fish should earn him enough money. That's when the fun begins, as Skiff sets out alone into the ocean to get one...

Not a bad book all in all. I like that it gives a glimpse into the life a child living in Maine. The plot ends up being very exciting, and challenging issues (death, alcoholism, bullying) are dealt with in a good way. I love the themes of "never give up" and "use your head" also.

Some of the things I didn't like about this book are the language and the slowness in getting going.
There isn't any actual cussing, but the language is very "improper/incorrect" (lots of "ain'ts" for example) which always bothers me a lot (like in the Junie B. Jones books) since part of the reason I read to my kids is to expose them to proper, beautiful language. The other thing that was hard about this book was that the first 1/3 is heavy on boat terminology. My kids and I know absolutely nothing about boats, so their eyes tended to glaze over a bit, and it took just a little too long to get to the main part of the story in my opinion.

The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout

 

Title: The Shootist

Author: Glendon Swarthout

Genre: Western

Rating: 4.5/5

J.B. Books, a rather famous shootist (gunman), is dying of prostate cancer as he rides into El Paso, January 1901. After settling in at a boarding house, he confirms with the local doctor that he does indeed have cancer, and yes, it is terminal. He has weeks to live. The people around him regard him with a mixture of fascination, awe, and horror, though no one knows much about him other than what they have read in the papers. The local marshal and certain businessmen trickle in to see him once they catch wind of his upcoming demise, each wanting something from Books (though it's all disguised as "freebies" or complimentary services at first.) All the while, Books is dealing with the inner turmoil of knowing his life is about to end. He wonders how he could have lived life differently. He feels alone. When the pain begins to overwhelm him, he considers dying on his own terms rather than going out screaming in pain. 

This book is definitely outside of my "regular" genre preferences (I prefer dystopian, sci-fi, urban fantasy, and historical fiction), but it ended up being a good palate cleanser. It's certainly not a bright and cheery book. Books is definitely dying - no miracle cures here. It's an interesting look at how someone might feel during their last days. And it's also an interesting look at cancer and how people had to deal with it before modern medicine. Horrifying. 

One enjoyable aspect of this book is that Books turned things around on the people who were trying to take advantage of him and his death. They came offering free services, but Books knew they would be selling his items and hair like wild greedy fools. So he had people paying HIM to do things for him, with the plan of giving the money to his landlady. His relationship with her and her son was a wonderful element to the story as well. <spoiler> She started out hating him like everyone else, but they were genuine friends by the end of the story. </spoiler>

I probably won't be running to buy a lot more western novels, but this was a good book, truly. It's famous for a few reasons, one of which is because John Wayne's last movie was based off this book. I knew that going in, and it's like the book was written for him. He had such a grumpy, "take no nonsense" attitude that fits perfectly with the main character of this book. Westerns tend to feel all the same to me, and this book is not really an exception. But it definitely has some interesting themes and was enjoyable overall.