Frindle and The Frindle Files by Andrew Clements

The Frindle Files brings Nicholas Allen, from Frindle fame, back into the limelight in this lively follow-up for middle grade readers.

Frindle by Andrew Clements. Atheneum, 1998 (reprint). 112 pages.

• Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10
• Recommended for: Ages 8-12

Nick Allen is in the fifth grade. And, as everyone knows,

Fifth grade was different. That was the year to get ready for middle school. Fifth grade meant passing classes. It meant no morning recess. It meant real letter grades on your report cards. But most of all, it meant Mrs. Granger.

Nick, you see, has a little bit of a reputation. He’s not a bad kid, but he is a very clever one. And he’s the sort of student who enjoys messing with his teachers a little, keeping it just this side of outright disrespect or finding himself in detention. Mrs. Granger, as you may surmise, also has a reputation; she’s been a fixture at Nick’s school for years and she knows her way around a classroom of fifth graders. In fact, Mrs. Granger just might be the perfect match—or, adversary—for one Nicholas Allen.

It all started with Mrs. Granger’s love of dictionaries (the versions deemed acceptable) and with Nick’s desire to lead teachers off topic. One thing led to another, until Nick finally got his big idea: since Mrs. Granger says people determine the meaning of words, why not call her bluff and start calling an ordinary pen a “frindle”? Nick manages to recruit his entire class, and the battle commences. By the end of the story, Nick has learned much about the power of an idea, the impact of surging fame, and how one can misjudge people. And he learns a lot about the formidable Mrs. Granger.

Frindle has been popular, with good reason, since the 1990s. It’s a lively story about the impact a good teacher makes on her students and the relationships that develop in classrooms and schools. Kids love it, teachers love it, and it just “works.” Even decades later, Frindle resonates with kids’ experiences in the classroom. No tech appears, and fifth graders today might be doing their work on computers, but the ideas in the book are timeless: Good teachers change lives. Students contribute to their own learning. Be careful what you wish for. Think before you act. Friends stick with you. And, language itself is malleable, made by the people. Except for one Word,* all others change definition over time.

*see John chapter 1

Bottom Line: Frindle is a timeless story of one boy’s efforts to outwit his teacher, and her delight in helping him mature as a student.

The Frindle Files by Andrew Clements. Random House, 2024. 224 pages.

• Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10
• Recommended for: Ages 8-12

It’s been nearly 30 years since the first book, Frindle, and, interestingly, it’s been nearly 30 years in the world of Frindle, too. A new crop of students, a new teacher (or is he?), and new tech. This is a thoroughly contemporary world in which students complain when their “old-school” teacher requires them to use a print book. Why? Can’t they just access it online? Is it really that different? It’s such an old book* that copies abound on the internet. Even worse, they have to hand write everything for Mr. N’s class. Who even writes with a pen and paper anymore?

*The book, incidentally, is The Elements of Style.

This is all bad enough for normal kids, but it’s killing Josh. Josh lives for his coding class, and he’s quite good at it. He doesn’t understand the virtues of pen, paper, and print books, especially when compared to the magic of perfect code. But one night, Josh’s tech skills help him stumble upon some interesting trivia related to Mr. N. And he begins gathering what he finds into a file on his desktop, aptly named the “Frindle Files.”

In the end, both Josh and Mr. N have a renewed appreciation for each other and for the technology each prefers. The Frindle Files keeps the same cheerful tone as Frindle, and the relationship between Josh and Mr. N is just as rewarding as that between Nick and Mrs. Granger. The Frindle Files is quite a bit longer than Frindle, and it suffers a bit from today’s preachiness—that is, many modern middle grade novels seem to assume they must spell out what Kids Need to Know a bit more than middle grade novels used to do. The Frindle Files contains plenty of information about online safety, the dangers of pirated books, and other Important Stuff about the world of tech. It’s a fun follow-up to the original, but The Frindle Files is no substitute for the original. Readers who already know Nick will enjoy reading about his life as an adult, but they will love him better if they meet him first as a fifth grader.

Bottom Line: The Frindle Files is a satisfying follow-up to the much-beloved Frindle.

Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Review: Matthew Muddles Through by Glenda Mathes (another middle grade book set in the the 1990s).
• Review: The Ship of Stolen Words (starred review!) is a fantasy about the importance of words. Mrs. Granger would approve.
• Review: Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings is a totally different sort of story, but just as good!

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