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!