How does Nick implement his plan in Andrew Clements' Frindle?
In Andrew Clements' Frindle, as soon as Nick decides to take the
meanings of words into his own hands by inventing his own word for the word
pen, Nick knows his next step is to get other people to use it. Just
as Mrs. Granger states, a word doesn't have a meaning unless society agrees
about the word's meaning; therefore, Nick knows that he must get other
people to agree that a pen is a frindle, not a pen.
The first step to his plan is to go into the Penny Pantry
store and ask to purchase a frindle. It takes the woman behind
the counter a while to catch on to what he is asking for, but she soon does; he
then walks off after having paid 49 cents for a frindle. Next, he
recruits his friends to also ask to purchase
frindles . On...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
five consecutive days, five of Nick's friends walk into Penny Pantry and ask to purchase frindles: John, Pete, Chris, Dave, and Janet. By the time Janet asks to buy a frindle, the woman behind the counter had become so used to the question that she instantly "reached right for the pens and said, 'Blue or black?'" (p. 35), showing Nick, who was observing from an aisle, that he had alreadymade someone treat the word frindle
as a real word. He also asks all five of his friends to take an oath
promising to "never use the word PEN again" but to, instead, always
"use the word FRINDLE" (p. 35).
The third part of Nick's plan is to use the word in
class to get his other classmates to start using it too. He does so by
raising his hand and telling Mrs. Granger that he "forgot [his] frindle" (p.
36). Nick's friend John then makes a big show of searching for an extra frindle
in his backpack. A fourth part of his plan is to have all of
the fifth graders, during their class photo, to say the word
frindle, while holding out frindles, instead of the word
cheese.
In Andrew Clements' Frindle, who is Nick and why isn't his name Nicky?
Nick is the main character in Andrew Clements' book entitled, Frindle, a story about the mayhem that ensues when fifth-grade Nick Allen decides to create a new word for a "pen." Mrs. Granger is Nick's English (language arts) teacher, and Nick is a very bright youngster.
If you asked the kids and the teachers at Lincoln Elementary School to make three lists—all the really bad kids, all the really smart kids, and all the really good kids—Nick Allen would not be on any of them. Nick deserved a list all his own, and everyone knew it.
Was Nick a trouble maker? Hard to say. One thing's for sure: Nick Allen had plenty of ideas, and he knew what to do with them.
With this in mind, Nick decides to challenge the particularly strict Mrs. Granger. Nick is something of a trickster, and likes to do all he can to distract his teacher and waste class time, but Mrs. Granger does not fall into these "traps." Something serious comes out of their "discussions" when Nick asks who decides what words go into a dictionary. Mrs. Granger tells him that he—and other people—decide, by using words.
Nick decides to call a pen a "frindle"—a word he makes up. For him, it starts out as a game, and from that point on, he refuses to use any other word for the writing implement than "frindle." Needless to say, it catches on and creates quite a stir not only in the classroom and in the school, but also in the town; it even makes it onto the news.
Though Mrs. Granger seems very strict, she is actually very interested in helping her youngsters grow, not only as students but as people. Nick and Mrs. Granger actually end up having more in common than they might have suspected at first—or perhaps Mrs. Granger had an idea, while it took Nick a while longer to catch on.
"Nick" is a nickname for "Nicholas," which is Nick's given name. The author specifies in the book's first sentence that "Nick" is the name that everyone uses to refer to him.