Book review: No Talking

No Talking
Written by Andrew Clements
Illustrated by Mark Elliot
Published by Simon & Schuster
Ages 8-12 yrs

Middle Grade School. Boys v/s Girls. Each thinks the others stink. So what happens if they get into a conflict over something worthwhile? Just what happens in our book.

Dave Packer, while preparing for a class presentation on India, comes across the story of Mahatma Gandhi, and is inspired by the principles of non-violence, non-cooperation and the disciplining of the mind by not talking.

"And it made him wonder what that would be like--to go a whole day without saying a single word...if not talking would bring order to his mind too." For that was something the fifth form was notorious for- talking, talking, talking- in class, at lunch break, in the corridors, on the playground- every thought thought out aloud!

Dave decides to put the idea to a test. He soon comes up against jeering by the girls, one girl in particular- Lynsey Burgess. Who takes up his challenge on behalf of all the girls. Starting that lunch period, all everyone was to hold their tongues completely. For the next 48 hrs. The 'maun-vrat' would be broken only after lunch break on the second day. They could talk only if a teacher or parent spoke to them directly, and even then they could speak only three words at a time. After school hours, they were supposed to be 'on their honour' and report any transgressions truthfully. It was a Boys v/s Girls contest- to be fought to the finish!

The teachers become aware of something strange in the air almost immediately. The quiet was unnatural, for these were the Unshushables- who even had a separate lunch break to themselves, with teachers hovering in the hallway, trying to keep down the decibel levels. "Mrs Hiatt, the principal, didn't want the noisy behaviour of this group to infect the other children at her school."

How does the experiment proceed? How does each teacher react to it? How do the students handle the indignation of Mrs Hiatt, who takes the whole thing personally, and tries to break what she feels is the students' non-cooperation in behaving normally? What is learnt in the whole process-- by the students, and by the teachers? Who wins, Girls or Boys?

A wonderful book about conflict in middle grade school, by Andrew Clements whose book Frindle has earlier been reviewed on Saffrontree. A book about the power of the mind, the power of the spoken and unspoken word. About people power. A fun book about recognising when to fight and when to let go. About communication, about the use and misuse of language. About standing up for yourself if you are right.

Image courtesy flipkart. Crossposted at Saffrontree..

Sidney Poitier - Life Beyond Measure



Pic courtesy teachwithmovies.org

The first I heard of Sidney Poitier was quite by accident, and without a realisation about the phenomenon that he is. This was way back in 1997, when we were in the US, and I picked up an interesting sounding movie at my library. It was about a young couple in love, and the girl gets the boy home to meet her parents. The boy is an extraordinarily well-educated person, with a responsible job in the UN, and by all accounts, a dream suitor for anyone's daughter. Reminded me of the Elizabeth Taylor classic- Father of the Bride, now re-made with Steve Martin and Diane Keaton as the parents.

Ordinary stuff, one would think. Except that it wasn't. The girl in question is a Caucasian, and the boy an African-American. What followed was extraordinary stuff indeed, considering that the movie was made in 1967, at a time when an inter-racial marriage was a punishable offence in at least 19 states in the US.

A wonderful movie. The parents are played by two of my favourites, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, a real-life couple, and the protagonist, John Prentiss, played by Sidney Poitier, all three Academy award winners, assisted ably by the newcomer who plays Joanna, the daughter. This was also the last movie in which Spencer Tracy acted, and he passed away a mere 17 days after filming ended.

Instead of telling you how the movie unfolds, I'll ask you to click on this link for a look at the movie trailer. Go on, click on it. It's a wonderful trailer, and if you've never watched the movie, it is worth your time.

I was fascinated by Sidney Poitier, bowled over, infact, (had quite a crush on him, if that word may be used!)and I proceeded to search out and watch all movies in which he has acted, all that I could lay my hands on. There was To Sir, with Love, based upon an autobiographical book of the same name by E. R. Braithwaite. There was A Patch of Blue, about a black man befriending a visually inpaired white girl, In the Heat of the Night, a crime thriller. There was Lilies of the Field, for which Poitier received an Oscar in 1963, becoming the first African American to receive the award for the Best Actor, male. He was all of 37. (He has also since received an Academy Honorary Award, "for his extraordinary performances and unique presence on the screen and for representing the industry with dignity, style and intelligence")

In every movie, one is struck with Sidney Poitier's persona and screen presence, and I was convinced that he was probably one of the priviledged few at the time among African Americans, who had had a wonderful opportunity at education. We are speaking, of course, of the 40s, 50s and 60s, at a time when the Civil rights movement had yet to give the wonderful results that have given us people like the present President of the US.

So when I came across two books penned by Sidney Poitier, his autobiography- The Measure of a Man, (which I have yet to read) and Life Beyond Measure, which is a collection of letters he has written for his great-grand-daughter, for her to read and know about the living history of her people when she is grown-up, I was amazed by what I read.

LIFE BEYOND MEASURE

Letters to my great-grand-daughter

Written by Sidney Poitier

Published by Simon & Schuster

Poitier undertook the writing of this book as a series of letters written to his great grand daughter, born around the time he was in his 70s.

He tells her of his humble beginnings, born as the youngest of a brood of poor farming parents. They lived on the Cat islands, in the Carribean, and it was just chance that Sidney was born on American soil. His parents had come to sell some produce in Florida- a simple thing to do at a time when there were no visa restrictions.

He had next to no schooling, and could not read or write very well when he was sent to America to make his fortune at the ripe young age of 16. Working in New York as a dish-washer, he chanced upon an advertisement for actors at a local theatre, but was rejected on account of his poor command on 'good' English.

Here was a turning point. A lesser person may have just not bothered bettering himself, and continued with his ordinary life. Not Sidney. He took it up as a challenge, and with the help of an elderly waiter, tutored himself, and presented himself to the same theatre group a year later. And the rest is history.

Poitier's letters tell us about his take on life, opportunities, faith, religion, family, love, commitments, marriage, fear, work, scientific advancements, war, health, and yes, about death, too. He does not dwell much on the films he has made, except when he needed to make a point. We also learn a lot about African-American history along the way. All in an easy conversational style reminiscent of a fable.

A legacy from a great-great-grandfather to his great-great-grandfather.

Crossposted at Bookreviews.

Have entered this review in the 2011 Global Reading Challenge in North America.

Frindle

Whenever I shop for books, I tend to browse by author, especially when I buy for A. She tends to have phases in which she reads all that she can lay her hands on by the flavour of the season.

During the last book sale I went to, there was a buy 2 get 3rd free deal. The books were random, not part of a series or anything. I found the children's section particularly interesting. I picked up about 9 books, for the cost of 6 books. They were all by different writers, and I had never heard of most of them.

I was not sure how they would be received by A, so I decided to read them myself before handing them over to her. They were quick reads, and I had soon finished the 1st. It had proved to be un-put-downable, and I was enchanted by it. There was not time that day to read the others, so I quickly browsed through them. They seemed very interesting.

Here is the 1st one I read- FRINDLE written by Andrew Clements. Illustrations: Brian Selznick. Published by Simon & Schuster.
Ages:8-12 yrs.

Nicholas (Nick) Allen is your regular tween in the fifth grade at Lincoln Elementary school. He is a bright child, with plenty of original ideas, and with never at a loss for words. He could have been called a troublemaker in a more conservative era, prone as he was to stirring up his classmates to get down to some mischief. He had had easygoing teachers until he reached the fifth grade and encountered Mrs. Granger.

Now Mrs. Granger was a strict disciplinarian, the no nonsense sort, with a fondness for dictionaries,  "Look it up!" was one of  her favourite phrases.

One day, Mrs Granger had said that it is we, people who decide what to call a thing by some word. Which is how most words originated and evolved. "If all of us decided to call a dog something else, that would become the word for it. We decide what goes in that book."

This gave Nick an idea. He got his friends together, and told them that from that day on, they would all call a pen a 'frindle'. Every time they spoke of a pen, between themselves, at home, in class, even in a shop while buying a pen, they were to call it a frindle. Until one day, the shopowner too called it a frindle. Soon word spread and all children at school began to call it a frindle.

Mrs. Granger fought against this onslaught on her beloved dictionary till she stood against the whole school. Whole hordes of students were being made to stay back after school and write lines with...you guessed it-frindles. The matter escalated until one day there appeared a story in the local newspaper, then the national newspapers, and then on the CBS evening news. Through it all, Nick and Mrs. Granger stuck to their positions and would not back off. An enterpreneur made millions of 'frindles' with the name written on them, patented it and Nick had a bank account opened in his name with millions of dollars pouring in as his percentage from the sale of these frindles.

One day, Mrs. Granger called him and showed him a sealed envelope with a letter inside it. She asked him to write his name, address, and the date on it in his handwriting. She told him that the battle was far from over, and that she would give him the letter when it finally was.

What happens further in the book is for the reader to find out. What is the issue at hand? Why is Mrs. Granger so dead set against Nick? What does the letter inside the envelope say? And what happens to Nick's word, FRINDLE? Wouldn't you like to know?

It is a wonderful  child sized book about the student-teacher relationship and the commitment of a good teacher to educating a worthy student, not just teaching him/her. 

Edited to add: Crossposted at Saffrontree.

Again ETA: This review won the best book-review prize in a contest by Crossword Bookstores.