Frindle
by Andrew Clements
★ Top 25 book of 1996 · #20 on Best Books of 1996
Nick Allen, a schoolboy who loves stirring things up, learns how words come to exist and decides to rename the pen as a frindle. His prank catches on across town and beyond, soon slipping out of his control.
Best for: Kids who love wordplay, mischief, and funny stories about school and creative ideas
Frindle is #20 on BookWard's Best Books of 1996, out of 38 1996 books that cleared our data bar.
What Frindle is about
Nick Allen is a fifth-grade class clown with a long history of creative schemes, and he is not happy to land in the class of Mrs. Granger, a no-nonsense English teacher. When she assigns him an essay on where dictionary words come from, Nick discovers that people decide what words mean. So he decides to call a pen a 'frindle'.
His classmates take to the word right away. Mrs. Granger punishes anyone who says it, but the ban only helps the word travel, until it draws attention across the country. Andrew Clements, who had only written picture books before, said the story began with a simple question: what if a kid started using a new word, other kids liked it, but his teacher didn't? Light, funny and encouraging, this 1996 middle-grade novel, illustrated by Brian Selznick, is a good fit for young readers who enjoy mischief and ideas, and for anyone curious about how language really works.
Frindle on the Best Books of 1996
Frindle came out in 1996. Of the 38 books first published in 1996 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #20 on our Best Books of 1996 list.
Why it made the list: 267 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.4 out of 5 (14 ratings). The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 1996 list
- Alias Grace Margaret Atwood, #18
- The Color of Water James McBride, #19
- Exquisite Corpse Poppy Z. Brite, #21
- Hogfather Terry Pratchett, #22
See all Best Books of 1996 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 1995 Best Books of 1997.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 223 want to read it, 15 are reading it now and 29 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 3.4 out of 5 from 14 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 55 | 55% |
| Reader love | 3 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 55 | 20% |
Questions about Frindle
When was Frindle published?
Frindle by Andrew Clements was first published in 1996.
Was Frindle one of the best books of 1996?
Frindle is #20 on BookWard's Best Books of 1996, out of 38 1996 books that cleared our data bar. 267 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.4 out of 5 (14 ratings).
Why is Frindle on the Best Books of 1996 list?
267 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.4 out of 5 (14 ratings).
More of the best books of 1996
- A Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin, #1
- The Green Mile Stephen King, #2
- Forbidden Knowledge Roger Shattuck, #3
- Push Sapphire, #4
- Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk, #5
- Neverwhere Neil Gaiman, #6
See the full Best Books of 1996, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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