Frindle
Written by: Andrew Clements
Illustrated by: Brian Selznick
Recommended for ages 8 -12.
$6.99 Simon & Schuster

As we enter back into the swing of school, many elementary school students will relate to Nick Allen. Nick is a fifth grader who has met his match with his language arts teacher, Mrs. Granger or as the children of Lincoln Elementary call her “the Lone Granger”.

In addition to teaching the importance of the dictionary, Mrs. Granger tells her students how words are created. Nick is then inspired to create his own word: frindle. Before he knows it his entire class is calling their pen a frindle. First his class then his school then the town then the whole of the US of A. Letterman and Good Morning America, what next?

This humourous look at the relationship between a daring fifth grader and his staunch teacher will have readers laughing out loud and wondering why they haven’t created a word they can call their own.