Nothing but the truth

A documentary novel by Avi

The book "Nothing but the truth" is one of my favorite english novels.  I was about sixteen years old when I first read it, and I remember that I was absolutely thrilled by the book. It was my English teacher in school who drew my attention to the novel. He knew that I liked English books a lot and so he lent me this of his.

The story was so captivating for me so that I still think about it sometimes today. This really is a book worth blogging about!

 About Avi:

Avi was born in 1937 into a family of writers. He was raised in New York City.

He is named Avi, because his twin sister was either unable or unwilling to use the name his parents had given him. He discovered his desire to write at quite a young age. Unfortunately, he had symptoms of dyslexia, which is a frustrating problem that makes writing difficult. Although, he did not give up and he kept trying to be a writer.

Avi started his career by writing plays while he was working as a librarian. After the birth of his first child he started to write for young people.

His books have received many prizes and he has also won many children’s choice awards.

Avi is the cofounder of ART, the Authors Readers Theatre, which is a group of writers who perform theatrical adaptions of their books. He lives with his wife and family in Denver, Colorado.

The story:

The story is about Philip Malloy, a ninth- grader at Harrison High School in Harrison, New Hampshire, who has got a passion for running.

Because he is doing very poorly in the class of his English teacher, Miss Narwin, he is given a D for his grade and so he is not allowed to try out for the track team (=Leichtathletikteam). He does not tell his parents that it is all because of his dislike for Miss Narwin and his bad marks. Instead he pretends that he no longer has an interest in trying out for the track team.

Philip causes many offences in his class by singing the National Anthem, which is not allowed at Harrison High. Because of this incident he is suspended from school by Dr. Joseph Palleni, the assistant principal, for a couple of days.

When Philip tells his parents that he was suspended for singing the National Anthem, they are very upset. Ted Griffen, a friend of Philip’s father who is , gives Philip an interview with a reporter who is interested in Philip’s story. The reporter then talks to Miss Narwin and the principal, but none of them wants to talk about the incident.

 The story then is printed in a local paper and Mr. Griffen uses it as a campaign issue about being suspended just because of being patriotic.

As a result of that, the story  becomes a subject of national media attention and the school is flooded with telegrams and letters which are against Miss Narwin and in support of Philip.

 The school tries to calm the media, but everything gets worse. Their statements have become half- truth and they blame Miss Narwin for all the mistakes. Philip is despised (=verachtet) by his colleagues for forcing the removal of Miss Narwin.

At the end of the story Miss Narwin goes to Florida to live with her sister. Philip transfers to a school in Washington. When his new teacher asks him to sing the national anthem, Philip starts to cry and confesses: “I don‘t know the words.“

I can really recommend this book to everybody! It is also easy to read and understand and the story is rather exciting- I read it all at once!