No Talking

May 7, 2007
C
lements's (Lunch Money
) latest thoughtful school tale opens as fifth-grader Dave researches a report on India. He is fascinated to learn that for years Mahatma Gandhi did not speak at all one day each week to “bring order to his mind.” Dave, an inveterate blabber, tries to keep silent for a day at school, a plan that derails when he cannot contain his outrage at his classmate Lynsey's superficial, nonstop monologue at lunch (“She knew
I wanted that sweater more than anything, and she bought it anyway. And then? After school on Friday at soccer practice? She smiled
at me, like she wanted to be friends or something—as if
!”). After she erupts at his complaint, the pair enlists their entire grade in an experiment to determine which gender can utter fewer words during a two-day period. The rules allow students to answer teachers' questions with a three-word-only response, but they are prohibited from speaking after school is dismissed. Enhancing the challenge is the fact that the fifth grade has a reputation for being particularly loquacious, prompting the teachers to dub them “The Unshushables.” The contest plays out at an occasionally plodding pace, as Clements dwells on the teachers' musings about the competition as they find ways for the kids to learn and communicate nonverbally. Despite the rivalry that started the contest, the longstanding animosity between the boys and girls dissipates as the students bond over the experiment. Presuming the novel doesn't generate similar contests in real life, readers may be compelled to use their voices to praise Clement's deft handling of an interesting premise. Ages 8-12.

Starred review from September 1, 2007
Gr 3-6-Dave Packer's fifth-grade classmates are so boisterous and difficult to quiet down that the teachers have dubbed them "The Unshushables." Dave has just read about Mahatma Gandhi and learned that the man practiced silence one day a week to bring order to his mind. Though Dave likes to talk nonstop, he's determined to give the idea a try. An encounter with Lynsey, another chatterbox, sparks the boys and girls into challenging each other to a no-talking contest for 48 hours. They can answer direct questions from adults with three-word sentences but must otherwise remain silent. The teachers are bewildered at the extreme change in the kids until several of them figure out what's going on. Principal Hiatt demands that the quiet students return to their normal behavior. When the children continue with their silent ways, Dave finds himself at the center of the controversy. This is an interesting and thought-provoking book, similar to Clements's "Frindle" (S & S, 1996). The plot quickly draws readers in and keeps them turning pages. The author includes the viewpoints of both the students and the teachers, and the black-and-white pencil drawings add immediacy to the story. This lively offering would make a great book-group selection or classroom discussion starter."Elaine Lesh Morgan, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR"

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2007
Ah, silencethe pipe dream of the frazzled educator. In Clements latest novel, however, a group of fifth graders turnsilence to their own subversive ends, yielding a comic yet thoughtful classroom drama in a mode the popular author has made his own. Inspired by Gandhis daylong rituals of silence, Dave devises acontest todetermine whether girls or boyscan keep their traps shut the longest.As the diversion builds to something moresignificant, the kids creative adaptations, such asthe condensed haiku of their spoken interactions with grown-ups, forma big part of the story. Equally prominentarethe responses of teachers, who strugglein different ways with the controlling principals mandate to discipline thezip-lipped miscreants. Clements tosses out more issues thanthe brief, fablelike storycan fully absorb, with kids experience of silence as exciting, even dangerous, coming across the least clearly. But the school dynamicsare spot-on, and theparadoxical notion of opening up ones experience of the world by imposing constraints upon it will intriguereaders of any age. Illustrations not seen.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)