The Frindle Files

Ages 8 to 12, Grades 3 to 7

One last gift to teachers and readers from Andrew Clements: A sequel to his most beloved, landmark book, Frindle. While the original is a love letter to writing and the power of words, The Frindle Files shows us that using those words carefully—that speaking up—can make all the difference.

Josh Willet is a techie, a serious gamer. Nothing’s better than writing code or downloading a new release. Which is why Mr. N’s ELA class is such a slog; it’s a strict no-tech zone. It feels like being stuck inside a broken time machine. Mr. N makes the kids write everything out on paper, he won’t use a Smart Board, and he’s obsessed with some hundred-year-old grammar book. 

Then one night, while s-l-o-w-l-y finishing an assignment by hand, Josh discovers a secret. Turns out Mr. N’s been keeping a lot more than technology from his students! Josh and his best friend, Vanessa, are determined to solve the mystery and rally the other kids around their cause. And maybe—just maybe—get some screen time back, too.

More than 25 years after the publication of Frindle, and set one whole generation later, The Frindle Files is a gift left by the beloved Andrew Clements before he passed away. It’s a story that’s both timeless and timely—about the importance of language, of digging deep to find answers, and of challenging what you think you know to imagine what is possible. Filled with humor and Clements' potent, no-nonsense prose, The Frindle Files is an inspiring, thoughtful, remarkable novel that will grace children's and classroom shelves for another 25 years.

About the Author

ANDREW CLEMENTS (1949–2019) was a New York Times bestselling author whose beloved modern classic Frindle has sold over six million copies, won nineteen state awards (and been nominated for thirty-eight!), and been translated into over a dozen languages. Andrew began writing as a public school teacher out- side of Chicago. Called the “master of school stories” by Kirkus Reviews, Andrew wrote over eighty acclaimed books for kids, including, most recently, The Friendship War and The Losers Club, which School Library Journal called “engaging and funny . . . a laugh-out-loud first purchase” in a starred review.