No Talking

Clements, Andrew.  No Talking.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007.

The fifth graders are the most troublesome class at Laketon Elementary. The students are too sophisticated for cooties. Instead the fling, epithets such as annoying or “immature” and do so very loudly. In fact to restore order, the principal often walks about talking over a red bull horn. The ring leaders the latest fifth grade brouhaha are David and Laura. It all begins because of Ghandi. In preparing a report, Dave discovers that Ghandi spent one day each day in total silence, decides he has been talking too much.  He likes Ghandi’s challenge, but fails miserably when he insults a girl, Lyndsey, in the lunch room one day, when he said, “If you had to shut for five minutes I bet the top of your head would explode (10).”   As a result of that insult, Dave and Lyndsey lead their classmates in a battle of no words, i.e. it is against the rules to say any more than three words in a row. They set a designated time and set out to see just who the fifth grade blabber mouths are. There are twists and turns before a touching a surprising end.

Clements is endearing himself to a generation of readers with his school stories. He has created believable characters and interesting situations. The adults aren’t perfect, but are not created in such a way that children reading the story will lose respect for adults. Dave has created an awkward situation with his three word rule and seeks to help solve it.  Overall I enjoyed reading the book finding engaging and largely inoffensive.