book review about nothing but the truth

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NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

by Avi ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1991

Ninth-grader Philip has never been in trouble, but he's upset because his English grade is keeping him off the track team. Meanwhile, though the rule is "respectful, silent attention," he hums along with the daily playing of the national anthem—a habit ignored by his jocular homeroom teacher. Then he's moved to the homeroom of Miss Narwin, his English teacher—well-liked because she's fair but rigid, humorless, and out of touch with modern kids. When she tries to enforce the silence rule, Philip responds with offhand rudeness borne of his distress about track plus his chronic tongue-tied style; the ensuing confrontation escalates into a two-day suspension followed by national media attention based on the erroneous belief that Philip has been denied the right to express his patriotism. Skillfully composing his story from school memos, news clips, dialogues, and Philip's diary, Avi shows how well-meaning people can generate misinformation through a combination of interrupting or simply not listening, shaping facts to suit their own goals, letting preconceptions muddy thought, or just lacking the will and the skill to get things straight. The garbled conversations here are all too believable; only one reporter makes an intelligent effort to find out what really happened, and his story is never printed. Nobody wins: Philip transfers to a school that doesn't have track, and Miss Narwin is forced to take leave. Wryly satirical: nothing but the deplorable truth about our increasingly inarticulate, media-driven society. (Fiction. 11+)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1991

ISBN: 0-531-05959-6

Page Count: 180

Publisher: Orchard

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1991

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION

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BOOK REVIEW

INDIVISIBLE

by Daniel Aleman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 4, 2021

An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.

A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.

Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.

Pub Date: May 4, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

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by Daniel Aleman

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PERSPECTIVES

IF ONLY I HAD TOLD HER

by Laura Nowlin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024

A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.

In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me , three characters tell their sides of the story.

Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781728276229

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE

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by Laura Nowlin

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69 pages • 2 hours read

Nothing But The Truth

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Summary and Study Guide

Nothing but the Truth is a Newbery-Award-winning documentary novel published by Avi in 1991. Set in the small New Hampshire town of Harrison, the novel is the story of how ninth-grader Philip Malloy’s efforts to get out of a class with Ms. Narwin, his English teacher, is transformed into a viral story that casts Philip as a patriotic hero and his teacher as a villain. In keeping with the documentary novel genre , Avi tells the story through transcripts of conversations, memos, news stories, and diaries.

The novel opens with a district-wide memo from Superintendent Seymour on the morning public announcements in the Harrison School District. Students are to listen silently and respectfully while the national anthem is played. Philip, a student in this district, writes in his diary about his excitement over the possibility of finally joining the highschool track team, a dream that is as important to him as it is to his father, who had to give up running and drop out of college to work a sales job to support his family.

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Philip’s only worry is that he is struggling in his English class, taught by twenty-year teaching veteran Ms. Narwin. Ms. Narwin is a committed but burned-out teacher discouraged by her inability to reach her students, who are mostly uninterested in the books they read in her class. Philip receives a C- on his winter term exam in Ms. Narwin’s class after he writes a flippant response to an essay question.

The exam score lowers Philip’s grade in Ms. Narwin’s course to a D, making him ineligible to run on the high school track team despite his speed. Angry that his poor grade in Ms. Narwin’s class stands in the way of academic eligibility for track, Philip decides to hum along with the national anthem as it is played over the public announcement system during his homeroom period with Ms. Narwin. Philip stops humming on the first morning at Ms. Narwin’s request but complains to his parents that the teacher will not allow him to sing the national anthem. They are appalled and encourage him to stand up for his rights. Philip hums the anthem twice more and is written up and suspended by Dr. Palleni , the assistant principal, for disrupting class.

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Angry at what he sees as an abuse of his son’s rights, Mr. Malloy takes his problems to Ted Griffen , a neighbor who is running for school board. Eager to capitalize on an issue that can help him win the election, Griffen uses the story of Philip’s suspension in his campaign speeches in order to discredit the current board. Griffen even contacts a reporter from the local newspaper to tell her the story. The reporter publishes the story after doing cursory interviews with the involved parties. The story goes viral once it is picked up by a national news service and publicized by a conservative radio talk show host.

Worried by what the bad press may do to the chances of passing a new budget and his re-election, Dr. Seymour , the district superintendent, pressures the administrators at Philip’s school to produce a report. The report slowly morphs until the blame for the situation falls on Ms. Narwin, despite evidence to the contrary. As the school and district receive a great volume of telegrams and letters criticizing Ms. Narwin, however, Dr. Doane, the school principal, moves Philip out of Ms. Narwin’s homeroom and eventually her English class as well.

Fearful of more negative press, the superintendent publishes a memo that changes the school policy by claiming that there is no rule against singing the anthem and that such displays are encouraged. The superintendent tells Griffen that the problem is Ms. Narwin and even shares cherry-picked quotes from her application for professional development funds to make it seem as if Ms. Narwin is out of touch. Dr. Doane tells Ms. Narwin that the district is now willing to provide her funds to take her class but that the school wants her to take a paid leave for the rest of the term. Ms. Narwin assumes this offer is a prelude to being fired, so she resigns and heads to Florida, where her sister lives. Dr. Doane’s efforts are too little, too late: when elections come around, the budget is defeated again and Griffen wins his seat.

Philip transfers to Washington Academy to escape the fallout from the story, but he discovers that the school has no track team. When his homeroom teacher encourages him to sing the national anthem that first morning at the new school, he tells her that he does not actually know the words.

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Parent reviews of, nothing but the truth: a documentary novel.

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• Kids Say 17 Reviews

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Nothing But the Truth: A Documentary Novel

Avi. scholastic, $16.95 (192pp) isbn 978-0-531-05959-3.

Reviewed on: 09/02/1991

Genre: Children's

Hardcover - 192 pages - 978-0-439-32730-5

Library Binding - 177 pages - 978-0-531-08559-2

Mass Market Paperbound - 978-0-380-26539-8

Mass Market Paperbound - 240 pages - 978-0-380-71907-5

Paperback - 268 pages - 978-0-7862-0131-0

Prebound-Glued - 177 pages - 978-1-60686-548-4

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