No Talking by Andrew Clements
Who would like this book? Anyone, grades 3 and up, who talks a lot or goes to school with other kids who talk a lot. (In other words, everyone.) If you wonder what might happen if everyone went silent for 48 hours, read this book! Do you like books that make you laugh out loud? Read this book. If you’ve read Frindle, you will grab No Talking without a second thought.
Why? They are known as “The Unshushables”: the one hundred+ fifth graders at Laketon Elementary. Their principal, Mrs. Hiatt, needs a red plastic bullhorn to make herself heard above their roaring during lunch. Dave Packer and Lynsey Burgess are two of the biggest talkers in this group of motor mouths; they are also sworn enemies, representing the deep rivalry between the girls and the boys at their school. So, when Dave and Lynsey are assigned a report on India, they divide the work and proceed individually. As he prepares his part of the report, Dave learns that Mahatma Gandhi practiced silence one day a week as a way to bring order to his mind. Impressed by this idea, Dave decides to give it a try. His initial experiment is a springboard for him and Lynsey to expand the idea into a 48-hour no-talking contest pitting the 5th grade girls against the 5th grade boys. Each word spoken is a point against the team, except that a three-word response to a teacher’s question is allowed. Clements gets every entertaining and thought-provoking nuance that one could expect from this engaging premise. He includes the viewpoints and responses of not only Dave and Lynsey, but lots of other students as well as their teachers, parents, and the determined Mrs. Hiatt. The black-and-white ink illustrations by Mark Elliott add lots to this fun page-turner. It’s a 2010 Young Reader’s Choice nominee in the Junior Division and would be a good choice for a Literature Circle.
The details: 146 p. 2007 Review by Samraian