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Frindle by Andrew Clements Review

April 18, 2014 by Daniel Johnston 4 Comments

There are a lot of kids books that are fun, that are exciting, that you enjoy.

There are very few, however, that you still love and treasure long after your childhood. The type of books that you remember perfectly, that you return to and read and like it just as much you did all those years ago.

Frindle by Andrew Clements is one of those books. Written for third to sixth graders, it’s a story that will keep any reader entertained throughout the whole book.

Summary

At the beginning of the book we are introduced to Nick, a fifth-grader in Mrs. Granger’s class. The school year is just starting, but Nick is already experimenting with ways to sidetrack his teacher (and maybe make her forget to give the homework). Nick is known for stuff like that.

Unfortunately, the plan backfires, and Nick is forced to answer his own bogus questions about where words come from. Even though Mrs. Granger intended it as a punishment, Nick finds the subject interesting.

When Nick’s friend drops a pen and Nick accidentally calls it a frindle, he gets a crazy idea: What if everyone started calling pens frindles? Since a word is given a name by popular usage, wouldn’t that make it a frindle, not a pen?

Nick recruits his friends to start using the word frindle instead of pen. When they go to the store, they ask for frindles. In Mrs. Granger’s class, people begin referring to pens as frindles. Unsurprisingly, Mrs. Granger doesn’t like this, and anyone who uses the term frindle in her class has to write, “I am writing this punishment with a pen,” 100 times.

The term frindle has become a fad, however, and many people look upon the punishment as merely a badge of honor. Before long the entire school has replaced pen with frindle in their own vocabulary.

The news media finds out about this, and it ends up making national news. The frindle fight is full blown. Will frindle be added to the dictionary, or will Mrs. Granger win in the end?

Review

This is an awesome book. Clements does a very good job of communicating a worldview in his books, and this one is no exception. Nick is a smart kid who has his own sense of what is right, and is more than willing to stand up for it.

Nick is a totally real person and so are his friends. We can also identify with his teacher Mrs. Granger, who in the end actually turns out to have been Nick’s ally all along!

This book also brings up an important point that words are only what we call things, not what the thing actually is. Although not very many kids will get this at a deep level, it will definitely get them thinking.

Plus, it’s a blast to read, so even reluctant readers will like it. You’re totally hooked on what Nick is going to do next and what will happen with the frindle battles.

A national fad like frindle is not going to come for every idea, but it definitely encourages kids to get creative and approach life with vigor and energy. For third to sixth graders, Frindle is a sure-hit.

Get Frindle by Andrew Clements

Zoobreak by Gordon Korman: Review

April 18, 2012 by Daniel Johnston 8 Comments

Zoobreak by Gordon Korman is the second book in the Swindle series, immediately following the wildly popular inaugural book Swindle. In Swindle, the main character Griffin Bing and his best friend, Ben Slovak, stumble upon a 1920 Babe Ruth baseball card while sleeping in an abandoned old house that’s about to be knocked down the next morning. Griffin’s family is having financial problems, and he doesn’t know much about baseball cards, but an original 1920 Babe Ruth in mint condition has to be a lot of money. So they take it a collector to see if it’s worth anything and the guy (S. Wendell Palomino, nicknamed Swindle) lies that it’s just a cheap knockoff and buys it for a pittance. It turns out the card is worth $974,000. What the guy did is unethical, it’s sleazy, but there’s no way to prove he lied. Swindle is going to get away with it.

But Griffin is the Man with the Plan, and he and his team of friends come up with a plan to steal the card back. It’s a very exciting and action-packed book, and one I highly recommend.

So what did Gordon do to follow up on that success? He wrote Zoobreak, a book that expands on the theme of kids fighting against unfairness by taking matters into their own hands. In Swindle, there was a million dollar baseball card. In Zoobreak, there’s Savannah’s pet monkey. Savannah’s animal has been stolen, and she is simply not going to stand for that. To make matters right, Griffin Bing will have to pull off his wildest caper yet.

It is helpful to note that these books can be read in any order. While I would advise beginning with the first book, it is possible to pick up the series anywhere.

Summary

As mentioned above, Savannah’s monkey Cleopatra is stolen. When her dog Luthor goes looking and comes back with a banana, she is certain the animal was kidnapped. But that’s not evidence she can hand over to the police.

To make matters worse, Griffin’s best friend Ben Slovak has narcolepsy, a disease which makes him susceptible to falling asleep at any time of the day. And his condition is getting worse. His parents are getting ready to send him away to a boarding school where he can get help, which would be an obvious catastrophe. Even though Griffin’s dad tries to convince him this is the best thing for Ben, Griffin knows the only reason Ben is going is because he’s a kid, and his parents want him to go. Unfortunately, solving narcolepsy is not one of the skills of The Man with the Plan.

Later on when Savannah locates her monkey at a flying zoo, she is livid. But she has no proof the monkey is hers. Savannah is sure of it, and her prowess with animals is so well-known that most everyone is willing to accept it as true. Still, to get the DNA testing would take a year and cost a lot of money. With the way this zoo treats their animals, there’s reason to suspect Cleo will not even survive that long. But Savannah is forced to leave her monkey there. There’s nothing she can do.

But where other people see closed doors, The Man with the Plan only sees opportunity. That zoo stole Savannah’s monkey, and just like they took back the million dollar baseball card in Swindle, this time they’re taking back something even more valuable. But every good planner knows that no plan can fit every situation, and there’s definitely no way to anticipate the insane situation these characters find themselves in.

Review

This book is 230 pages with large font, written for kids around the age of 9-14. The writing is very good and the book is fast-paced and exciting as is usual with this series.

This is a great book, with Griffin and his friends being firmly committed to taking down the vicious animal thief by whatever means necessary. The team certainly makes good on Griffin’s stated goal of standing up to unfairness in this one.

Click here to buy the book Zoobreak by Gordon Korman. You can also check out my Facebook Page or subscribe via email below for more book reviews.

Framed by Gordon Korman (Swindle Series): Review

April 11, 2012 by Daniel Johnston 4 Comments

Framed is the third edition in the popular Swindle series written by best-selling author Gordon Korman, one of my personal favorite authors. This series features Griffin Bing (the main character) and their gang of friends. In Swindle, the inaugural book, Griffin and his best friend Ben Slovak discover a 1920 Babe Ruth baseball card while sleeping in abandoned old house that’s about to be knocked down. They take it to a collector to see if maybe it will solve Griffin’s financial problems, but the appraiser (S. Wendell Palomino, nicknaked Swindle) tells them that it’s just a cheap knockoff and buys it for $120. But actually, it’s worth $974,000. The only way to get the card is to steal it back.

After Zoobreak (which was an excellent continuation of the spirit of the first book), Framed is a another great entry that keeps the series rolling. In this book, Griffin and his friends go to a middle school with a principal (Dr. Egan; nicknamed Dr. Evil) who hates them because of their past. Griffin wants to get back at him, but after being threatened by the police at the end of Zoobreak, none of the team is eager to try another “plan.”

Note: These books can be read in any order. While I always recommend starting at the beginning, it is by no means necessary, as the plots are independent to each book.

Below is a video trailer for Framed made by Scholastic.

Summary

A 1968 Jets super bowl ring mysteriously disappears from the school. And Griffin’s retainer (which he had previously lost) is found right in the case where the ring used to be! Griffin didn’t do it, but to Dr. Egan and the police the evidence is pretty compelling. Judge Koretsky, who is assigned to his case, also does not buy his story and banishes him to the John F. Kennedy Alternative Education Center (JFK), infamously known as “Jail for Kids.”

Griffin and his friends pick several suspects: Darren Vader (a money lover and a member of the Swindle and Zoobreak teams), Cecilia White (a newspaper columnist who is trying to call attention to Griffin’s plots), Dr. Egan, and a kid by the name of Tony Bartholomew who is related to Art Blankenship (the former owner of the ring) and wants to grab it for himself. But his sting operation doesn’t go as planned, and Judge Koretsky confines him to house arrest.

Griffin is determined to unmask the identity of the scoundrel who’s framing him. Griffin’s parents are distraught as they know he lost his retainer earlier and wasn’t guilty, but begin to lose their patience when Griffin’s sting operations start to land him in more trouble. Griffin’s spirits sink lower as he is kept away from his friends and things are showing no sign of getting better. To smoke out the thief and drop the fallacious charges levied against him it will take a truly spectacular solution.

Review

This book is 234 pages with large font, meant for kids in the age group of 9-14. The writing is very good and the book is fast-paced and exciting as is typical with Korman books.

His books frequently put his characters in interesting situations and in no way fall into any kind of the preachiness that has plagued kids books for so long. Instead Korman prefers smart characters who are never afraid to take action to get whatever it is they want. A recurrent theme of the Swindle series is kids fighting against unfairness by taking matters into their own hands, and this book executes that theme in excellent fashion. It is very fast-paced and exciting, with constant plans and movement from the characters. The ending is a little bit unconnected to the rest of the book, but it is one that you definitely will not be able to guess.

This book captures the excitement of the original book and is highly recommended. Click here to buy the book Framed by Gordon Korman.

Showoff by Gordon Korman (Swindle Series): Review

February 8, 2012 by Daniel Johnston 7 Comments

Series Background

Regular readers of this blog will know that Gordon Korman is one of my absolute favorite kids authors. The first book I read by him was Swindle, a book about Griffin Bing and his gang of friends to steal back a valuable 1920 Babe Ruth baseball card that is rightfully theirs; the owner of a local baseball shop, S. Wendell Palomino (otherwise known as Swindle) buys the card from Griffin after he finds it in an old abandoned house for only $120. I highly recommend this book and it was recently featured in my Six Books for Tweens that are Breathtakingly Awesome list. Other people massively enjoy it, too, and it has sold millions of copies and become wildly popular among kids.

I also mentioned in that list that there were three sequels. Showoff by Gordon Korman is the latest book in the Swindle Series. Griffin and his friends are back in a caper that will take animal expert Savannah Drysdale’s dog Luthor from the pound to the Global Kennel Society Dog Competition.

Lest you worry you need to read them in order – while I’d recommend it, the plots aren’t tied together, and these books can stand well by themselves

Okay, now to the actual plot and book. Griffin and his friend Ben Slovak are on a six-week sleepover during the summer while Griffin’s dad, an inventor, tours Europe in order to try to sell his stock. Griffin and Ben are best friends, with Griffin being the “Man with the Plan” and Ben being his sidekick.

As school lets out, they meet up with Savannah to attend a dog show which showcases the number one dog in the world at the time, Electra. Savannah brought her dog Luthor along with her to see the show. However, it comes to pass that a tragedy happens. For some reason, Luthor goes and attacks Electra. Luthor is a big doberman who used to be a guard dog, but Electra is just a tiny dog, and is injured badly. Electra was going for an unprecedented third straight victory at the Global Kennel Society Dog Competition, a victory that would’ve netted her owners multi-millions of dollars. Now, they will be suing for compensation against Savannah and her family.

The lawsuit is for over $7,000,000, and even though Luthor has never done anything like this before (as aforementioned, he used to be a guard dog, but with Savannah he’s fun-loving and absolutely fine), the Drysdale’s decide that they have to take Luthor to the pound in order to make themselves look better for the lawsuit.

Luthor was Savannah’s most beloved pet, and his disappearance throws the entire household into a frenzy. Another of Savannah’s pets, Cleopatra (a monkey), was best friends with Luthor, and even tries to break into Griffin’s house in the hope that Luthor might be there. But Savannah is even more distraught. She is so upset that her parents take her on a vacation for the summer to get her mind off her beloved (and likely to be soon dead) dog.

Griffin and Ben are at first not too upset about it. They didn’t like Luthor anyways. But when Griffin hears Luthor’s mournful wails, he knows they have to do something. And they can’t let Savannah’s family go bankrupt! But what can they do? It’s no problem for the Man with the Plan.

There’s no way Griffin’s dad will let them adopt the huge (and menacing canine), but maybe they can somehow get Luthor to win the Global Kennel Club. If they can, then not only can Luthor get back to Savannah, but the money from that can pay off the lawsuit. But can Griffin and Ben train a dog that wrecks an entire garage in less than a day? Especially since without Savannah, Luthor is in an especially bad mood? Will the truth about why Luthor attacked Savannah coax an old dog-lover back into the show to save the day?

Review

The book is 240 pages with large font. It’s meant for kids around 9-14, and has high quality writing. While an action/adventure book, the danger contained is not nearly as much as the other books in the series. Someone tries to harm them, but it is underplayed and never made to be too serious a problem. This book is different in tone from all the other books in the series. It has a lot of action, but is much more relaxed, in addition to being a lot more predictable than the other books.

Despite not being quite the high-stakes rollercoaster the other Swindle books are, Showoff is still a good addition to the series and will be well-received among kid readers. Click here to buy the book, Showoff by Gordon Korman! You can also enter your email below to get more book reviews. And you can like my Facebook page if you want.

Four Book Series for Tweens that are Breathtakingly Awesome

January 30, 2012 by Daniel Johnston 4 Comments

Looking for some great books for tweens? You’ve come to the right place. Here are six awesome books for tweens. A bonus is that these are series, so the total amount of great books you’ll get out of this post is significantly greater than five.

1. The 39 Clues

This is a very exciting action-adventure series. It is still ongoing, and they’re currently on the second series of it, called Cahills vs. Vespers. Edit: Several years later the series has moved on, but new books are continuing to come out. I can only speak for the high quality of the first series and most of the second one.

This is a series about two kids, Dan and Amy Cahill (11 and 14 respectively; although their age changes throughout the series), who find out when their grandmother Grace dies that they’re part of the greatest family the world has ever known. Businessmen, inventors, scientists, mathematicians, politicians, spies; you name it. The source of their power is thirty-nine clues, which over the years have been scattered all over the globe. Whoever finds all thirty-nine clues will be the most powerful person in human history.

So they get a choice at the funeral, two million dollars or a hint to the first clue. For two penniless orphans, two million dollars is a fortune, but, of course, they take the clue.

It turns out there are four branches to the family, and thousands of Cahills, each willing to do anything possible to get the clues first; even kill. They travel all over the world in a search for the clues. Shocking secrets, amazing escapes, and even deaths accompany the hunt. There is also a ton of historical information, so you can learn a lot, too.

Another cool thing about it is that it’s a multi-author series, featuring famous authors such as Rick Riordan, Gordon Korman, Patrick Carman, Margaret Peterson Haddix, and more.

What really sets it apart is that it’s not just the books, but there are also cards included that you can enter into their website, and also plenty of games in your own search for the clues.

Although you can start anywhere, I’d advise starting at the beginning of the series. Highly recommended.

Buy the first book in The 39 Clues series, The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan.

2. Swindle

This is also an on-going series, written by the author of four of the books in the above series, Gordon Korman. There are currently seven books out. They are all action-packed adventures about a kid named Griffin Bing (The Man with the Plan) and his friends. Griffin is always trying to get into things and right wrongs. In Swindle, Griffin and his best friend Ben Slovak find a 1920 Babe Ruth baseball card. They take it to a collector to see if it’s worth anything and the guy totally swindles him. Griffin takes a mere hundred and twenty bucks for a rare card that is worth nearly a million.

So they try to right this wrong and steal the card back. The heist involves several other kids, and even the police get involved eventually. Very, very, exciting fast paced and exciting books. All of the books in this series (except for the fourth, which is still more lighthearted but still good) follow this kind of similar pattern of Griffin and his friends taking matters into their own hands. Kids just love this series!

Buy Swindle by Gordon Korman.

3. Last Shot

This is the first book in a sports series by John Feinstein. The main characters are fourteen year-olds Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol. They are the two winners of a writing contest so they get to travel out to write about the Final Four basketball tournament.

While there, they realize there is a plot to blackmail one of the star players, Chip Graber, to throw a game on purpose. Stevie and Susan Carol work together with Chip to find out what is going on and to catch the guys who are orchestrating this. There are similar types of stories in books focused on baseball (Change Up), football (Cover Up and The Rivlary; the former being the Super Bowl and the latter being about Army vs. Navy), tennis (Vanishing Act), and swimming (Rush for the Gold) all with different plots and mysteries. There is no regard for previous plot-lines except in regards to character development, and that is pretty minor, so you can start with the book that covers your favorite sport.

John Feinstein is a well-respected sports journalist who knows the industry well and also a fine mystery writer, so these books are a treat. There are many twists of plot that make them exciting from cover to cover.

Buy Last Shot, Vanishing Act, Cover Up, Change Up, The Rivalry, or Rush for the Gold by John Feinstein.

4. On the Run

This is another series (one six-book series and a follow-up trilogy called Kidnapped) by Gordon Korman, the same author of the Swindle series, about two kids named Aiden and Meg Falconer whose parents get convicted as terrorist-aiders and sentenced to life in jail in “the trial of the century.” The Falconer family become the most hated

This is very bad for Aiden and Meg, obviously. They try foster care, but their parents being so well-known and so ubiquitously hated is major problem. Eventually they get sent to a low-security prison in order to take them out of the spotlight for a few years (despite the fact they have committed no crimes).

It is a horrible situation. They have to work on a farm and do school most of the day, living among thieves and murderers. Meg wants to get out of there to prove their parents innocent, but Aiden realizes there’s no way to do it. Except for one day, a fire breaks out. Aiden decides to let it go and burn the place down, so they can escape. Others jump, too, but one by one, the others get caught while Aiden and Meg manage to stay on the run.

Aiden and Meg know their parents are actually innocent. They were working for an FBI agent, not for terrorists! But he has disappeared off the face of the earth. To prove their parents innocence, they have to track him down, something the Falconers’ high-priced criminal attorneys were unable to do. And they must do it with the FBI chasing them down and a crazy killer who wants to make them dead.

This is one of my all-time favorites, an action-packed adventure that will keep you guessing.

Buy the first book in the series, Chasing the Falconers by Gordon Korman.

I’ve just told you about four great series that combine for a total of forty-three books. These should keep you busy for a while!

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