This is my first Saturday chapter book review for the year 2020!

Here is the beginning of my list favorite books written by Andrew Clements.

4^rd Grade and Up

(First Published 1996)

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.

I’m going to be honest here, this whole story went over my head as a child and as an adult it still is. But since you can’t mention Andrew Clements without including ‘Frindle’ so…

There are many different types of smart; there’s book smart, street smart, socially smart, etc. And in Nick’s case there’s too smart for your own good. This kind of smart gets you into trouble but the good kind of trouble, the kind of trouble that makes a difference.

I think the main lesson this book is the power of words and that a thing called by any other name is still the thing. The lesson I took from this story is that a great teacher can make an impact on a child and inspire them to go on to do great things.

This story, along with the other Andrew Clements books I’ve reviewed have one common lesson: a child can do great things when they put their mind to it.

This weeks’ Weird but True Fact about a Unique Word

Borborygmus is the word for the rumbling sound in your stomach when you’re hungry.