[.uk] Head of the Class: Frindle; The Landry News; The ... (ISBN 1416949747)

The power of the press, the consequence of a bubblegum prank, and having fun with neologism - Andrew Clements at his best:
I first got clued into award-winning author Andrew Clements a while ago when I stumbled across his absorbing YA novel, Things Not Seen. Guy is so good I've gone and read his other works, which happen to be mostly children's books. Thing about Andrew Clements is that, while his target audience is predominantly middle grade kids and younger on, he's such an effortlessly natural storyteller that he makes these books accessible to everyone, even old, broken-down fogies like me. I simply enjoy his writing. HEAD OF THE CLASS is a boxed set collecting three of Andrew Clements's children's books: THE LANDRY NEWS, THE JANITOR'S BOY, and his classic of classics FRINDLE. All three are very good. I really liked THE LANDRY NEWS, maybe even more so than FRINDLE (and I really liked FRINDLE). Mr. Clements weaves an engrossing, thought-provoking story while exploring the Constitution's First Amendment and imparting its meaning and value to the reader. THE LANDRY NEWS features two characters which you can't help but root for. Let me get into the plot a bit: For a while now, Mr. Larson has been the least popular teacher in Denton Elementary School. Man has got a peculiar teaching method, a method which does away with homework and dispenses with teacher-student interaction. Instead, Mr. Larson spends much of his classroom time just drinking coffee and reading his newspapers. No surprise then that there's a constant outcry for his termination. New student Cara Landry flips the scenario when she begins to write a newspaper in Mr. Landry's fifth-grade class. This unassuming classroom newsrag starts out innocently enough, but, soon, Mr. Larson finds his job on the line and the sanctity of the First Amendment called into question. THE LANDRY NEWS is graced with one of those great endings, as Cara's heartfelt editorial closes things out. Read it, love it. I guarantee it. THE JANITOR'S BOY starts out with middle grader Jack Rankin's mean-spirited bubblegum caper backfiring. The mortified Jack is sentenced to three weeks of after-school gum scrape-up duty with the school's head custodian. Who happens to be his dad. Who happens to be the root of Jack's mad-on in the first place. At one point or another, a parent will cause you embarassment. It's just the way of the world. Well, Jack is pretty ashamed that his dad is a janitor. And some of the kids come hard with the taunting. THE JANITOR'S BOY tells of Jack's time spent in punishment as he unearths surprising things about his school, his father, and himself. "Words only mean what we decide they mean." The third book is FRINDLE, a hugely engaging reflection on the power, evolution, and influence of words. It's possibly Andrew Clements' most beloved book. When fifth-grader Nick Allen has an epiphany and begins to call a pen a "frindle," he lights a fire which begins in his Language Arts class and spreads beyond the school and into the national media and into the public consciousness. FRINDLE is a wonderful book! It charmed and educated (I didn't know the origin of the word "quiz.") and made me think. I appreciated that Mr. Clements doesn't depict Mrs. Granger, Nick's Language Arts teacher and primary adversary, as a straight-out villainess. In fact, she plays a touching and key part to the book's resolution. Andrew Clements, first and foremost, is a quality storyteller. Himself having been a school teacher before turning to full-time writing, he knows what sparks youthful imagination and what fuels children's curiosity. His writing style is easy-going yet sensitive, and it naturally draws the reader (of any age) into the narrative. And he's fantastic at introducing a plot curve or two, and then casually nudging in valuable life lessons. You're having so much fun reading that, sometimes, you don't even realize you've just learned something. Which goes to show, after all this time, Andrew Clements is still a teacher.