Frindle by Andrew Clements

From Goodreads,

"From bestselling and award-winning author Andrew Clements, a quirky, imaginative tale about creative thought and the power of words that will have readers inventing their own words.

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."

Goodreads - Frindle

Awards and Nominations:

• Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children's Literature Nominee (1997)
• Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Nominee (1998)
• Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader's Choice Award (1999)
• Washington State Sasquatch Award (1999)
• North Carolina Children's Book Award (1999)
• Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award (1999)
• Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Book Award for Grade 4-6 (1999)
• Charlie May Simon Children's Book Award (1999)
• Massachusetts Children's Book Award (1999)
• Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award for Grades 3-6 (2000)
• California Young Readers Medal Nominee for Intermediate (2000)
• Flicker Tale Children's Book Award (2001)
• Bluestem Book Award Nominee (2015)
• Phoenix Award Children's Literature Association (2016)

I remember being in Junior High when I first read this book.  It was the first book I read by Andrew Clements, and it definitely wasn't the last.  As a kid myself, I thought it was so cool that a kid was able to create a new word for a simple object like a pen.  I absolutely understand why and how this book as so many awards that stretches for almost 20 years.

Frindle is about a rebellious young boy named Nick.  He is full of great ideas and loves to waste time in class by asking his teachers ridiculous questions.  Everything is great until he meets his match - Mrs. Granger.  He asks her a question about the dictionary, that in turn leads to spark of the idea of creating a new word.  What was meant to be a harmless joke, turns into a huge ordeal that gains lots of attention from everyone.

I love how this book can inspire and spark an idea in a person.  Nick had the idea to start calling a pen a frindle.  Others started doing the same and it eventually caught on until a frindle became a name for a pen.  I've taught this book before in my classroom and at the end of the book I always have students pick an ordinary object and give it a new name.  This book really shows students, that with determination, they can take a simple idea and turn it into something. This book also has a lot of gateways to talk about our vocabulary in today's world of technology and how people have created words.

One thing that I didn't like about this book is that the chapters are a little bit choppy.  It doesn't follow a fluid timeline, but instead jumps forward every couple of chapters.  I have found that students sometimes struggle to grasp the jump in time in this book.  The book starts fairly slowly progressing over time, but then at one point it jumps months ahead.  Students struggle with this because it doesn't share what happened in the the months we didn't read about.  They just seem to be lost.  I would have honestly preferred this book be longer with more details than to have the time jump.

This book will definitely inspire at least one student to grab an idea and work to make their idea a reality.  I give this 4 stars.  This is a fun read aloud, but is really geared toward middle school aged students.