No Talking - Realistic Fiction

No Talking is written by Andrew Clements. When Dave Packer, a fifth grade student at Laketon Elementary School, does a project on Gandhi, he decides to try not to talk at school for a whole day. When he finally breaks downs and talks it is to criticize a girl in his class, Lynsey Burgess. The two get into an argument and create a competition for the whole fifth grade. Who can talk the least, boys or girls? The rules: they can only speak when spoken to by an adult but it has to be in three words or less, every other word spoken other than this counts as a point against your team, and the competition will last for two days. This fifth grade class is know as the "Unshushables" so when the teachers do not hear the students talking they are puzzled at what is going on. Most of the teachers are mad at the experiment, especially the principal, because it is wasting their class time. One teacher thinks it is a great experiment though and encourages the students for being so devoted. The principal tries to make the students start talking again but when they do not listen she decides to join the experiment. Lynsey and Dave start to get along towards the end of the book. Lynsey says enough words right before the end of the contest so that the boys and girls result in a tie and neither team wins.

I would use this book as a fun read for the children. I think that it would get them very engaged and interested in the book. I think that they would be very curious to see how the story ended. I would stress the importance of talking when it was necessary. At the beginning, the Unshushables talked too much and it distracted from class time. When they were not talking, it obviously wasn't enough and they couldn't communicate with each other or with their teacher. This book could be used with a very talkative class to hopefully show them that talking is okay when it is the appropriate time. Also, it could be used to teach being respectful of others. Lynsey and Dave did not get along until the end of the story. They gained a new understanding for each other throughout the book and they became friends. This could be taught to a class that might not get along all of the time. The students could create an Animoto for this book.

Animoto:

No Talking