Fiction

In the well written middle-grade novel No Talking, author Andrew Clements portrays a competition between the fifth-grade boys and the fifth-grade girls at Laketon Elementary School to determine which group can talk the least for 48 hours spread over three weekdays, beginning and ending with lunch period.  Dave Packer gets the idea of being silent from reading about Mahatma Gandhi.  In a moment of annoyance with Lynsey Burgess, Dave challenges Lynsey and the other girls to have this contest.  They accept the competition.  The rules allow the youngsters to use a maximum of three words if the children must respond to a teacher or other adult.  During the silent days, Lynsey serves as the ringleader of the girls, while Dave leads the boys.  Both children are “proud and stubborn” (chapter 5, p. 25). (more…)