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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
So help you God,
By
This review is from: Nothing but the Truth: A Documentary Novel (Mass Market Paperback)
Let's say you're a well-known children's author who wants to write a book criticizing the one-sided quick response nature of our media saturated society. And let's say that you'd like to show this nature in the form of a boy and the Star Spangled Banner. Now, there are two ways to go about this. The easy way would be to write a book in which a boy refuses to sing the Star Spangled Banner in class and his silent protestation is blown out of proportion and becomes a major national scandal. There are plenty o' books with this plot, or some mild variation. And while they are all well-intentioned, they're not particularly original. The more difficult method would be the one offered here by Avi. In this book you have a boy who is supposedly punished for singing the national anthem and his self-centered approach to this punishment ruins a whole lotta lives, including his own. Heard that story before? You will.Philip Malloy is just your typical high school jerk. He goofs around, wants to be on the track team, and generally is as normal a guy as you could wish for. Of course, Phil's not exactly tops in his English class. In a clash of personalities, Philip tries to be lighthearted and silly when in the presence of Miss Narwin. Miss Narwin, on the other hand, is a truly dedicated teacher who tries as hard as she can to get her kids interested and serious in the great works of English literature. When Philip is disruptive and silly, she reacts strongly, trying to reach him. This all comes to a head when Miss Narwin is made Philip's homeroom teacher and asks him to remain silent (as per the school rules) during the daily playing of the Star Spangled Banner. Philip, who cannot try out for the track team due to his poor English grades, ups the ante by singing and continues to badger Miss Narwin until he finally ends up with a suspension. And all of this would remain in the closed sphere of a single public high school, were it not for the fact that the idea of a boy being suspended, "for singing the national anthem", is just the kind of hot topic the pundits love to play with. In the end, no one could predict the insanity that would result from a stupid boy just acting out. The danger with a book like this is that it would be all too easy to strain credulity. I mean, the idea that America at large would get wrapped up in a debate as to whether or not a boy was "allowed" to sing the national anthem is a bit grandiose. Then again, high school has always been the symbolic battlefield, both in art and life, where real world conflicts are played on. Better still, Avi knows just exactly how to pull the strings on this puppy. Why does Phil's father push him to continue to act out in class? Because Mr. Malloy is being hounded at work and is feeling powerless personally (something he doesn't want Phil to feel). Why does the neighbor of the Malloys take such an interest in this topic? Because he's running for the school board and needs a hot button topic like this one to get elected. For every burst of press this story gets, Avi has a perfectly good reason for it in his back pocket. And I loved the characters in this story and how they reacted. If nothing else, Avi has a wonderful feel for the weaknesses of human beings. His villains are simply the kinds of people who hear the story they want to hear and proceed with willful ignorance, doing everything they can to avoid listening to the other side. I loved that the man running for the school board used Phil's act as a way to say that the school didn't need to receive additional funding for new computers since they weren't even patriotic. Beautiful. The book is written in an engaging style as well. Part script, part play, the book's like a mature (and remarkably better written) version of "Regarding the Fountain" or (similarly well-written) Walter Dean Myers's, "Monster". It's as if you're reading a collection of transcripts and recorded diary entries meticulously pieced together by an interested unknown party. The result is a book that's as interesting to look through as it is to read. "Nothing But the Truth" has one last element in its favor. It presents the number one best kicker of a last line ever put in a children or teen novel. Read the book and see if you agree with me. Read the book and see if you disagree with me. For crying out loud, just read the friggin' book. It'll a wonderful piece of subversive literature that every kid should be familiar with. Sweet sedition light.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Non-traditional story shows point-of-view is everything,
By Kara Reuter (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Nothing but the Truth: A Documentary Novel (Mass Market Paperback)
This book is a story told indirectly, through diary entries, letters, memos, news clips, dialogues, and telegrams. As the reader pieces together these different materials, the story of a controversial episode over the course of several weeks in a high school emerges. Freshman Philip Malloy is struggling in English class and homeroom with his teacher Miss Narwin. Due to a failing grade in her class, he is unable to join the track team, his greatest ambition and likely only route to college. In a fit of unruliness, Philip sings along to the national anthem as it is played over the PA for morning announcements during homeroom. Warned twice over two days about breaking the rule to observe "respectful, silent attention" during the anthem, on the third day Philip willfully pushes Miss Narwin's limits until she sends him to the principal's office where he is promptly suspended. When relaying the day's events to his parents, Philip tells only part of the story, noting that he was suspended for singing the national anthem. Outraged at this supposed affront to a young man's expression of patriotism, a local politician and the media catch wind of the story and spread the story - full of misinformation and factual errors - across the country creating a huge media storm, which eventually results in the end of Miss Narwin's teaching career and similar unfortunate consequences to Philip himself. The story examines the variations a mistruth can go through when filtered through person after person and illustrates how different people can have multiple perceptions and interpretations of the same event. The various types of material offer the reader several points of view and provide insight in to the story that none of the characters alone possess. This dramatic irony gives the reader a feeling of privilege as well as frustration as the events unfold. The resolution of the story is deeply unfair (though true-to-life) and may be unsettling and unsatisfying for many readers. Near the end of the story, the politics of education may be above the heads of some readers or simply dull to others. Some readers will find the non-traditional structure of the story hard to follow and slow to read. For avid readers, this book is a good tool for media literacy instruction, offering insight into how personally damaging misinformation can be and perhaps inspiring healthy skepticism of what they read and hear second-hand.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Teacher's View: Almost Shakespearean,
By A Customer
This review is from: Nothing but the Truth: A Documentary Novel (Mass Market Paperback)
"Nothing But the Truth" is better than all but a very few of the adult novels I've read lately. I'd recommend it highly to adults (my wife loved it too), and it's well worth teaching to the right age group (roughly grade 9-11).Avi's approach to character seems almost Shakespearean to high school--teachers, students, administrators, parents, politicians--and shows how their different goals and biases keep them from understanding and the protagonists' minor but significant character flaws lead to grievous consequences that ought to induce fear and pity. (This might be a nice book to pair with "Julius Caesar"--the characters could be generally writes in a workmanlike, clear prose that shouldn't intimidate younger readers. Based on the other reviews I've read here, and thinking students who are too young (7th grade is too young). (2) Students will need help in discovering that the characters behave the way they do because they see the same incidents in very different ways. All the characters think they're telling "nothing but the truth," but their various "truths" are contradictory. If you can get students to see this, it could be a valuable lesson about why real-life political issues are so difficult to resolve. (3)Students find the ending a let-down, so teachers have to help the students see why a more conventional ending wouldn't have been right for the book.
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