39 pages • 1 hour read
Andrew ClementsFrindle
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1996A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Nick”
Nick is a student at Lincoln Elementary who may or may not be a troublemaker, but he certainly “[has] plenty of ideas, and he [knows] what to do with them” (1). For example, he once turned his third-grade classroom into a beach. The idea seems harmless to Nick’s teacher, but before long, the theme crosses lines: Nick turns up the thermostat to 90 degrees, sprinkles the floor with sand, and plays “Nerf volleyball over a net made from six T-shirts tied together” (2). The fun ends when the principal discovers the classroom in complete disarray.
In fourth grade, Nick learns that red-wing blackbirds evade their predators by making a chirping sound that is difficult to locate. Nick experiments during silent reading by making a high-pitched “peeping” sound, which his teacher, Mrs. Avery, fails to correctly locate. Instead, she blames his classmate, Janet Fisk. He later apologizes to Janet and explains what he learned about blackbirds, and she joins Nick’s game throughout the rest of the year.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Mrs. Granger”
Nick senses that fifth grade will be different from previous years, particularly because of his language arts teacher, Mrs. Granger: “She was small, as teachers go. There were even some fifth graders who were taller. But Mrs. Granger seemed like a giant” (7). She is an older woman who dresses sharply and has piercing eyes that see through students’ mischief. Mrs. Granger is most notorious for her vocabulary drills; she assigns vocabulary every week and houses a library of dictionaries in her classroom. Over the summer, she sends a letter to families requesting that they acquire a dictionary for students to use at home, providing a list of acceptable editions. Nick, who doesn’t see any real need for dictionaries or mountains of homework, can feel that trouble awaits him in fifth grade.
Chapter 3 Summary: “The Question”
The first day of school is easy until Mrs. Granger’s seventh-period language arts class. She fills the period with pre-tests, expectations, and review. Nick—the class’s expert derailer—produces a “thought-grenade,” or a question meant to divert the teacher just long enough to postpone a homework assignment: “Mrs. Granger, you have so many dictionaries in this room, and that huge one especially… where did all those words come from? Did they just get copied from other dictionaries? It sure is a big book” (14). However, Mrs. Granger expertly deflects the question and assigns Nick extra homework: an oral report that he will research to answer his own question and share his findings with the class. Nick is embarrassed and frustrated, and he knows that Mrs. Granger lives up to her reputation.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The first three chapters serve as exposition to establish different characters—especially Nick’s perspective. Nick is most notorious for his prolific imagination, which he often applies to pranks and schemes. He loves generating ideas, though he does so without much regard for their consequences. For example, after making the “great blackbird discovery” (2), he accidentally makes trouble for his classmate Janet Fisk. Importantly to Nick’s characterization, he advocates for the good of his classmates, making school more fun and helping them evade homework with his infamous “teacher-stopper, or the guaranteed time-waster” questions during class (13). Feeling guilty about Janet, he apologizes, demonstrating genuine concern for how he embarrassed his classmate. However, because the potential conflict quickly resolves (he invites her to join the game), he doesn’t dwell on his actions’ negative repercussions and continues business as usual.
Contrary to many middle school and young adult novels, this story’s adults are reasonable and genuinely care for the kids. The adults are also not a monolith, and each adult interacts with students in distinctive ways. For example, Miss Deaver—a first-year teacher of third graders—betrays naivety when she allows Nick’s classroom beach idea to go too far. However, she is not portrayed as a pushover, but as a starry-eyed teacher enthralled by her students: “‘That’s so cute!’ […] ‘It’s so colorful!’ […] Miss Deaver was surprised again at just how creative her students could be” (1-2). Alternatively, the fourth-grade teacher Mrs. Avery commands a more orderly classroom. Nonetheless, when she wrongfully accuses Janet Fisk of perpetrating Nick’s bird call, she apologizes to Janet. Clements, influenced by his own teaching experience, doesn’t represent the novel’s adults as unjust or bitter, but rather uses their diverse personalities to interact uniquely with each of Nick’s ideas.
These teachers prepare Nick for the ultimate challenge: Mrs. Granger, the fifth-grade language arts teacher. Mrs. Granger is a larger-than-life teacher—a perfect match for Nick’s larger-than-life ideas. Her eyes are perceptive, and students are convinced she has X-ray vision that sees right through their antics. However, her eyes are dynamic in expression, hinting at her character’s complexity: “They were dark gray, and if she turned them on full power, they could make you feel like a speck of dust. Her eyes could twinkle and laugh, too, and kids said she could crack really funny jokes” (6-7). Whereas Nick loves creating good-humored chaos, she believes in law and order. Their parallel perceptiveness and differing mindsets—student and teacher—establish two sides of a debate that defines the story.
These exposition chapters also set the story’s playful tone. For example, decades of Mrs. Granger’s former students are familiar with her “battle cry: ‘Look it up! That’s why we have the dictionary” (10). Using language consistent with Nick’s fifth-grade environment, the narrator creates an analogy likening Mrs. Granger’s commitment to vocabulary as a militaristic conquest in her elementary classroom. This line humorously demonstrates Mrs. Granger’s respect for the dictionary and its function, which further represents her dedication to law and order.
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By Andrew Clements
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