Mr. P's Classroom - Home

1 Frindl Nick, age 2 monthsANDREWPICTURES BYCLEMENTSBRIAN SELZNICKALADDIN PAPERBACKSlf you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book isstolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" the publisher and neitherthe author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book."First Aladdin Paperbacks e&tion February 1998 Text copyright @ 1996 by Andrew ClementsIllustrations copyright @ 1996 by Brian SelznickAladdin PaperbacksAn imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division1230 Avenue of the AmericasNew York, NY 10020 All rights reserved, induding the right ofreproduction in whole or in part in any formAlso available in a Simon & Schuster Booksfor Young Readers hardcover e& text ofttris book is set in l4-point illustrations are rendered in and bound in the United States of America10987654321 The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:Clements, Andrew, 1949-Frindle / by Andrew Clements; illustrations by Brian When he decides to turn his fifth grade teacher's love of thedictionary around on her, clever Nick Allen invents a new word and beginsa chain of events that quickly moves beyond his 0-689-80669-8I I.

2 Teacher-student relationships-Fiction. 2. Wor&, I. Selznick, Brian, ilI. II. 1996 95-26671[Fic]--dc20 ISBN 0-689-81876-9 (Alad&n pbk.)For Becby, Charles, G:[:,Nate, and JohnongtlicftIF YOU ASKED the kids and the teachers atLincoln Elementary School to make threelists-all the really bad kids, all the really smartkids, and all the really good kids-Nick Allenwould not be on any of them. Nick deserved alist all his own, and everyone knew Nick a troublemaker? Hard to thing's for sure: Nick Allen had plenty ofideas, and he knew what to do with time in third grade Nick decided toturn Miss Deaver's room into a tropical kid in New Hampshire isn't ready for alittle summer in February? So first he got every-one to make small palm trees out of green andbrown construction paper and tape them ontothe corners of each desk. Miss Deaver had onlybeen a teacher for about six months, and shewas delighted. "That's so cute1."The next day all the girls wore paper flow-ers in their hair and all the boys wore sunglassesand beach hats.]

3 Miss Deaver clapped her handsand said, "It's so colorfull"The dav after that Nick turned the class-room thermostat up to about ninety degreeswith a little screwdriver he had brought fromhome. All the kids changed into shorts and T-shirts with no shoes. And when Miss Deaver leftthe room for a minute, Nick spread about tencups of fine white sand all over the classroomfloor. Miss Deaver was surprised again at justhow creatiue her students could the sand got tracked out into the hall-way, where Manny the custodian did not thinkit was creative at all. And he stomped rightdown to the principal followed the trail of sand, andwhen she arrived, Miss Deaver was teaching thehula to some kids near the front of the room,and a tall, thin, shirtless boy with chestnut hairwas just spiking a Nerf volleyball over a netmade from six T:shirts tied third-grade trip to the South Seasended. that didn't stop Nick from trying toliven things up. Lincoln Elementary needed agood jolt once in a while, and Nick was just theguy to deliver a year later, Nick made the greatblackbird discovery.

4 One night he learned on aTV show that red-wing blackbirds give thishigh-pitched chirp when a hawk or some otherdanger comes near. Because of the way soundtravels, the hunter birds can't tell where thehigh-pitched chirp is coming next day during silent reading, Nickglanced at his teacher, and he noticed that 's nose was curved-kind of like the beakof a hawk. So Nick let out a high, squeaky,blackbird "peepl"Mrs. Avery jerked her head up from herbook and looked around. She couldn't tell whodid it, so she just said, "Shhhl" to the minute later Nick did it again, louder."Peeep'!" This time there was a little gigglingfrom the class. But Mrs. Avery pretended not tohear the sound, and about fifteen seconds latershe slowly stood up and walked to the back ofthe taking his eyes off his book, andwithout moving at all, Nick put his heart andsoul into the highest and most annoying chirp ofall: "Peeeeepl"Mrs. Avery pounced. "Janet Fisk, you stopthat this instantl"Janet, who was sitting four rows awayfrom Nick, promptly turned white, then brightcrimson.

5 "But it wasn't me .. honest." There was acatch in Janet's voice, as if she might Avery knew she had made a mistake,and she apologized to Janet."But someone is asking for big trouble," saidMrs. Avery looking more like a hawk kept reading, and he didn't make lunchtime Nick talked to Janet. He feltbad that Mrs. Avery had pounced on lived in Nick's neighborhood, and some-times they played together. She was good atbaseball, and she was better at soccer thanmost of the kids in the whole school, boys orgirls. Nick said, "H"y Janet-I'm sorry yougot yelled at during reading. It was my was the one who made that sound.""You did?" said Janet. "But how come thought it was me?"So Nick told her about the blackbirds, andJanet thought it was pretty interesting. Then shetried making a peep or two, and Janet's chirpswere even higher and squeakier than Nick's. Shepromised to keep everything a the rest of Nick's fourth-grade year, atleast once a week, Mrs.

6 Avery heard a loud"peeeep" from somewhere in her Classroom -sometimes it was a high-pitched chirp, andsometimes it was a uery high-pitched Avery never figured out who was mak-ing that sound, and gradually she trained herselfto ignore it. But she still looked like a Nick, the whole thing was just onelong-and successful-science Janet Fisk enjoyed it, or oAis. GrcrnggrFIFTH GRADE WAS different. That was theyear to get ready for middle school. Fifth grademeant passing classes. It meant no morningrecess. It meant real letter grades on your reportcards. But most of all, it meant Mrs. were about one hundred fiftv kids infifth grade. And there were seven fifth-gradeteachers: two mqth, two science, two socialstudies, but only one language arts teacher. Inlanguage arts, Mrs. Granger had a monopoly-and a Granger lived alone in a tidy httlehouse in the older part of town. She drove anold, pale blue car to school every morning, rainor shine, snow or sleet, hail or wind.

7 She had aperfect attendance record that stretched backfarther than anyone could hair was almost white, swept awayfrom her face and up into something like a neston the back of her head. Unlike some of theyounger women teachers, she never wore pantsto school. She had two skirt-and-jacket outfits,her gray uniform and her blue uniform, whichshe always wore over a white shirt with a littlecameo pin at the neck. And Mrs. Granger wasone of those people who never sweats. It had tobe over ninety degrees before she even took offher was small, as teachers go. There wereeven some fifth graders who were taller. ButMrs. Granger seemed like a giant. It was hereyes that did it. They were dark gray, and if sheturned them on fuIl power, they could make youfeel like a speck of dust. Her eyes could twinkleand laugh, too, and kids said she could crackreally funny jokes. But it wasn't the jokes thatmade her was sure that Mrs. Granger had X-ray vision.

8 Don't even think about chewing apiece of gum within fifty feet of her. If you did,Mrs. Granger would see you and catch you andmake you stick the gum onto a bright yellowindex card. Then she would safety-pin the cardto the front of your shirt, and you'd have towear it for the rest of the school day. After that,you had to take it home and have your mom ordad sign the card, and bring it back to the next day. And it didn't matter toMrs. Granger if you weren't in fifth grade,because the way she saw it, sooner or later, youwould the kids at Lincoln Elementary Schoolknew that at the end of the line-fifth grade-Mrs. Granger would be the one grading theirspelling tests and their reading tests, and worstof all, their vocabulary tests-week after week,month after language arts teacher in the worldenjoys making kids use the dictionary: "Checkyour spelling. Check that definition. Checkthose syllable breaks."But Mrs. Granger didn't just enjoy thedictionary.

9 She loued the dictionary-almostworshipped it. Her weekly vocabulary list wasthirty-five words long, sometimes if that wasn't bad enough, there was a"Word for the D"y" on the blackboard everymorning. If you gave yourself a day off anddidn't write one down and look it up and learnMrs Granger loued the dictionarythe definition-sooner or later Mrs. Grangerwould find out, and then, just for you, therewould be two Words for the Day for a Granger kept a full set of thirtydictionaries on a shelf at the back of the her pride and joy was one of those hugedictionaries with every word in the universe init, the kind of book it takes two kids to sat on its own little table at the front of herclassroom, sort of like the altar at the front ofa graduate of Lincoln ElementarySchool for the past thirty-five years couldremember standing at that table listening toMrs. Granger's battle cry: "Look it up'! That'swhy we have the dictionary."Even before the school year started, whenit was still the summer before fifth grade forNick and his friends, Mrs.

10 Granger was alreadybusy. Every parent of every new fifth grader gota letter from 's mom read part of it out loud duringdinner one night in home is expected to haue a gooddictionary in it so that each student10can do his or her homeworh, properly,Good spelling and good grammar andgood word sh,ills are essential fo,euery student. Clear thinkingrequires a command of the EnglishIanguage, and ftfth grade is the idealt;ime for euery girl and boy to acquirean expande d uo c abul^ then there was a list of the dictionariesthat Mrs. Granger thought would be "acceptablefor home study."Mrs. Allen said, "It's so nice to have ateacher who takes her work this seriously."Nick groaned and tried to enjoy the rest ofhis hamburger. But even watermelon fordessert didn't cheer him up had no particular use for the dictio-nary. He liked words a lot, and he was good atusing them. But he figured that he got all thewords he needed just by reading, and he readall the time.