''Frindle'' is a middle-grade American children’s novel written by Andrew Clements, illustrated by Brian Selznick, and published by Aladdin Paperbacks in 1996. It was the winner of the 2016

Phoenix Award The Phoenix Award annually recognizes one English-language children's book published twenty years earlier that did not then win a major literary award. It is named for the mythical bird phoenix that is reborn from its own ashes, signifying the boo ...

, which is granted by the

Children's Literature Association The Children's Literature Association (ChLA) is a non-profit association, based in the United States, of scholars, critics, professors, students, librarians, teachers, and institutions dedicated to studying children's literature.Margaret W. Denman ...

annually to recognize one English-language children's book published twenty years earlier that did not win a major literary award at the time of publication. ''Frindle'' was Clements’s

first novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

; all of his previous works had been picture books. According to Clements, the book originated from the thought, “What would happen if a kid started using a new word, and other kids really liked it, but his teacher didn’t?”

Plot

Nicholas "Nick" Allen is a class clown who has been formulating creative schemes throughout

grade school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

. At the start of

fifth grade Fifth grade (also 5th Grade or Grade 5) is the fifth or sixth year of formal or compulsory education. In the United States, this is mostly the last grade of primary school, but for some states, it could be the first year of middle school. Primary ...

in 1987, he is unhappy because his English teacher is the no-nonsense Mrs. Granger. One day, in an attempt to forestall, Nick decides to question Mrs. Granger on where each word in the

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

comes from. This backfires, as Mrs. Granger assigns him an

essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

about it. From this experience, Nick learns that individuals get to determine what words mean, and when he comes across a gold-colored pen in the street, he decides to give a "pen" a new name: ''frindle''. Nick's classmates like the idea and soon, every child in the fifth grade starts using the word ''frindle''. Mrs. Granger makes any students who are caught saying ''frindle'' stay after school and write lines, but this proves to be a problem, as this causes almost every student to stay after school. The school principal decides to visit Nick's house to end the use of ''frindle'', but the situation is beyond Nick's personal control, and the word's usage cannot be curtailed. ''Frindle'' starts to gain national attention, and a family friend purchases the

merchandising Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of Product (business), products ("merch" colloquially) to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative w ...

rights to the word. The word ''frindle'' spreads across the nation, and Nick thinks through the trouble that this one scheme has caused. In the

epilogue An epilogue or epilog (from Greek ἐπίλογος ''epílogos'', "conclusion" from ἐπί ''epi'', "in addition" and λόγος ''logos'', "word") is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature, usually used to bring closure to the ...

, Nick is a young adult. Mrs. Granger sends him a new copy of the dictionary, recently updated to include new words, including the word ''frindle''. She includes a letter, in which she explains that she intentionally stood against the word to make it more popular. Nick sends back a present — the frindle that started it all,

engraved Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an inta ...

with the words, "This object belongs to Mrs. Lorelei Granger, and she may call it any name she chooses."

Awards and honors

The U.S.

National Education Association The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the United States. It represents public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college st ...

named ''Frindle'' one of "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children" based on a 2007 online poll. In 2012, it was ranked number 38 among all-time children's novels in a survey published by ''

School Library Journal ''School Library Journal'' (''SLJ'') is an American monthly magazine containing reviews and other articles for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, wi ...

'', a monthly with a primarily U.S. audience. The book has received more than 35 awards and honors, including among other schoolchildren's choice awards: *Judy Lopez Memorial Honor Book (L.A.), Award 97 *1998–99 Maud Hart Lovelace Award, MN Youth Rdg. Award * Prize Cento, 1998, Cento, Italy *Year 1999 Young Hoosier Book Award * 2016

"Phoenix Award"
. Children's Literature Association (childlitassn.org). June 2015. Retrieved 2015-09-13.

Sequel

''The Frindle Files'', a sequel to ''Frindle'' and set a generation after the first book, was published posthumously by

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

on August 27, 2024. The cover art was created by Clements' longtime collaborator Brian Selznick.

Film adaptation

In 2015, it was announced that a film adaptation was in development with Mike Karz and Bill Bindley producing and Sam Harper penning the script.

Susan Sarandon Susan Abigail Sarandon (; née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actor. With a career spanning over five decades, she is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to ...

signed on to portray Mrs. Lorelei Granger. , no further development has been announced.

References

External links

* {{authority control 1996 American novels 1996 children's books 1996 debut novels American children's novels Books by Andrew Clements Novels set in elementary and primary schools