Nick Allen is your average 5th grader. He likes spending time with his friends, eating pizza and playing video games. He’s also a bit of a prankster. Frindle by Andrew Clements shares a story of how Nick plots to rebel against his god-awful 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Granger.
Mrs. Granger believes in two things. Strict Classroom Conduct and The Holy Dictionary. To the Danger Granger, the dictionary is absolute gospel. After Nick’s not-so-clever scheme of wasting class time, he is forcefully assigned to do a report on the history of words and why and where words come to existence. In short, words are created because we as a society recognize it to be. Realizing he could take this further, Nick and the entire class plots to change the word “pen” into “frindle.”
Mrs. Granger detests any sort of tomfoolery especially if it affects the English language. Any student caught writing or speaking the word “frindle” would be reprimanded immediately. What started out as a silly classroom ruse, has turned into an all-out school warzone.
Readers can witness just how far civil disobedience can revolutionize a tyrant dictator of a teacher. Through the unification of friendship, Nick and his friends may just see through their plan. Clements has done a wonderful job portraying the satirical behavior of children, the pettiness of teachers and the incompetence of principals. Every single character has been imagined colorfully and dimensionally.
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