Sarah

Sarah

or message || opinion ||  By : Andrew Clements || A little boy named Nick, Nicholas Allen, moved to the fifth grade and heard rumors going around the school about his new language arts teacher being very mean and strict, but he thought the rumors weren't true.  On the first day of school, Nick met his fifth grade language arts teacher, Mrs. Granger, or as some kids call her, "The Lone Granger ."  Nicholas was a good trouble maker and an excellent time waster. He and the class all looked at each other with huge grins on their faces. They all had an idea.  Nick and the kids in his class thought that he should waste time so they wouldn't have to do their homework assignment. They knew that with his brilliant time wasting skills, the bell would ring before they would get their homework assignment, and the teacher would forget about it by the end of the school day. So Nick tried it by asking the teacher how words were invent ed, and instead of making the whole day of school homework free, he just gave more homework for himself.  A few weeks later, Nick made up a new word based on the information "The Lone Granger " gave him on how new words were invented. The teacher said " Anyone can make up a new word. "  He made a promise with six of his friends from school that instead of saying the word "pen", they would have to say the word "frindle ". Almost every kid in the school started to use the word " frindle " ! !  Soon, Mrs.Granger got upset and put up a sign on the school bulletin board saying that if she heard any kid say the word "frindle" , they would have to stay after school and write the word "pen" one hundred times and take the late bus home.  Even though all the kids in the school that said the word "frindle"were supposed to write the word "pen" one hundred times, the students wrote the word "frindle" instead.  After a while, the word "frindle" started to spread around the world , and newspaper and magazine editors were knocking on Nick's door asking him how the word "frindle" was started! !  All the parents thought that their children staying late after school was a bad idea and wished the word "frindle" was never invented. Mrs. Granger and Nick continued to have a war over the word "frindle." Mrs. Granger wrote a date on an envelope and placed it in her desk, telling Nick that the war over the word "frindle" would be over when she handed him the envelope.  Ten years later, while Nick is in college, he received a dictionary from Mrs. Granger with an envelope. Nick realized he WON the war because the word "frindle" was in the dictionary! A few days later on Christmas Eve, Mrs. Granger found a box outside her door. She tore open the velvet blue box and found a pen. She picked up the pen, which was heavy, and turned on a lamp next to her couch. She noticed her name was printed on the pen and she knew it was from Nick. || You can do anything if you try. Never doubt your smarts, and you'll do more that you and the people around you expected you to do. || I think this story rocks! Nick wanted to find ways to waste time and he never gave up trying to do that. He invented a new wo rd and now it's in the "dictionary", well Nick's dictionary. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;"> I know all of my teachers will love this excellent stor y. When I say something like that, I mean something like that ! ! So try to keep your eyes peeled for this amazing story !! ||
 * name of book || summary || theme
 * Frindle