Fan Casting

Nicholas "Nick" Allen is a class clown who has been formulating creative schemes throughout grade school. At the start of sixth grade in 1987, he is unhappy because his English teacher is the no-nonsense Mrs. Granger. One day, in an attempt to forestall homework, Nick decides to question Mrs. Granger on where each word in the dictionary comes from. This backfires, as Mrs. Granger assigns him an essay about it. From this experience, Nick learns that individuals get to determine what words mean, and when he comes across a gold pen in the street, he decides to give a "pen" a new name: frindle. Nick's classmates really like the idea and soon, every child in the fifth grade starts using the word frindle. Mrs. Granger opposes herself to the new word, stating that the word frindle is not respectful to the word pen, which has a long history. She makes children stay after school and write lines for saying the word frindle, but this proves to be a problem, as almost every pupil has to stay after school. The school principal decides to visit Nick's house to end the use of frindle, but the situation is beyond Nick's personal control, and the word's usage cannot be curtailed. Frindle starts to gain national attention, and a family friend purchases the merchandising rights to the word. As the word frindle spreads around the nation, Nick thinks through the trouble that this one scheme has caused. In the epilogue, Nick is a young adult. Mrs. Granger sends him a new copy of the dictionary, recently updated to include new words, including frindle. She includes a letter, in which she explains that she intentionally stood against the word in order to make it more popular. He sends back a present – the pen that started it all, with Mrs. Granger's name engraved on it along with the words, "This object belongs to Lorelei Granger and she may call it any name she chooses to."