With the help of your parents or another adult, assemble a list of new words or new meanings for old words that have entered common usage within the last generation. New inventions and ideas or changing cultural influences continually add new words to our language. What's the largest number of synonyms you can come up with for one single word? On your own or with a group, make a list of words with many synonyms.

But many words, such as friend or attractive, already have several common synonyms. When Nick decides to call a pen a frindle, he creates a new synonym for a word that has few.

Think of an object, a situation, or behavior that you think needs a single new word all its own. What's your teacher's idea of a perfect gift from a former student? Has he or she received it yet?Ĭreate and define your own new word. Granger's class, Nick finds a perfect way to show her how important she was to him. 'School,' the author writes in Frindle, 'was the perfect place to launch a new word.' Why? What makes schools such good breeding grounds for fads? Do companies or community organizations ever use your school for promoting products or services? How? Do you think his parents were right in setting up a trust fund for him? What do you think he might have done with the money if he could have spent it earlier? What would you do if you suddenly had a lot of money of your own?

Granger that she can't be pushed around?Īlthough Nick didn't know it until he turned twenty-one, his new word earned him a huge amount of money. For example, how does his first illustration, opposite the title page, help set up the novel? How do you know from his fullpage portrait of Mrs. Discuss a few of your favorites in detail. Granger writes to Nick, 'needs a bad guy, don't you think?' Do you agree? Does every good story have a villain? Can you think of any that don't?īrian Selznick's illustrations add their own sly humor to Frindle. Brainstorm about ways you could improve your own school. The frindle is just one of Nick's great ideas.

How is each explored in Frindle? What do you think is the true nature of each? Describing his novel, Andrew Clements writes that Frindle 'is about discovering the true nature of words, language, thought, community, learning.' Take each of these ideas one at a time.

Frindle audiobook