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    No Talking
    No Talking
    No Talking
    Ebook123 pages1 hour

    No Talking

    By Andrew Clements and Mark Elliott

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    In No Talking, Andrew Clements portrays a battle of wills between some spunky kids and a creative teacher with the perfect pitch for elementary school life that made Frindle an instant classic.

    It’s boys vs. girls when the noisiest, most talkative, and most competitive fifth graders in history challenge one another to see who can go longer without talking. Teachers and school administrators are in an uproar, until an innovative teacher sees how the kids’ experiment can provide a terrific and unique lesson in communication.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAtheneum Books for Young Readers
    Release dateMar 13, 2012
    ISBN9781416995197
    Author

    Andrew Clements

    Andrew Clements (1949–2019) was the author of the enormously popular Frindle. More than 10 million copies of his books have been sold, and he was nominated for a multitude of state awards, including a Christopher Award and an Edgar Award. His popular works include About Average, Troublemaker, Extra Credit, Lost and Found, No Talking, Room One, Lunch Money, and more. He was also the author of the Benjamin Pratt & the Keepers of the School series. Find out more at AndrewClements.com.

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    Reviews for No Talking

    4/5

    390 ratings27 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Narrated by Keith Nobbs. While researching a project on Mahatma Gandhi, Dave is intrigued by the vow of silence that Gandhi took and decides to try it for himself. This escalates into a contest between the 5th grade boys and 5th grade girls to see who can keep the most silent over a period of two days. The exception is that when responding to teachers they can only speak three words at a time. At first the teachers wonder what's wrong with the school's most talkative, noisiest class, but once they figure out the deal, they come to see the creative possibilities of not wasting words. The kids benefit from the experience as well, developing a heightened appreciation for communication, teamwork, and each other's abilities.
    • 4/5
      One of the very noisy fifth graders of Laketon Elementary in the Middle of New Jersey, Dave, decided to put his classmates to a test. The competition started between him and his classmate Lynsey and grew among the noisiest group of fifth graders ever. Between shrugs, nods, notes, and coughs the fifth grade class figures out that they can handle the no talking competition. Dave and Lynsey do not seem to get along about much, however they have no problem laying out the rules for each other. As time goes on, teachers and faculty become very uneasy about this situation. They are happy that the fifth graders have quieted down, with the exception of different noises they are allowed to make, yet they wonder why they are doing this in the first place. The narrator of this story had a sense of humor and a way of letting the readers know exactly what was going on. I liked this aspect of the book. The narrator always let us know where conversations, meetings, and interactions were taking place. This effected the theme and plot by not leaving us guessing what was going on and where it was going on. I would say that one main theme of this book is patience. Patience between teachers and students, and patience between students and students. I do think that this noisiest group of fifth graders ever were purposely trying to be labeled as such. Having patience with each and being able to get along in peace eventually allows a happy medium for everyone.
    • 4/5
      My first Clements' book, and it was a fun one. 5th grade boys and girls decide to enter a contest in which neither side can speak for two days (with minor exceptions, to permit them to respond to teachers with no more than 3 words at a time). Led by Dave and Lindsay, the "unshushables" learn a lot in the process, including how to better communicate with each other. A quick listen (since this was an audio book) and well worth the time!
    • 5/5
      At Laketon Elementary, the boys and the Girls are playing a game that witch ever side talks less, wins. The principle and the other teachers are wondering why is fifth grade lunch so quiet. But the teachers are getting mad, because no one is talking. Then the parents get involved. But the game is still on. Which side wins, girls or boys? Can they Explain to the grown ups that this whole thing is a mistake?
    • 4/5
      No Talking by Andrew Clements is a quick and fun book to read! Lynsey and Dave are classmates in the fifth grade. In fact, along with many others in their class they have been attending Laketon Elementary together since they were all in kindergarten! Early on their class earned the nickname "Unshushables" from their teachers because they could not be quieted. Not only that, the girls and bo
    • 2/5
      A no-talking contest between boys and girls raises some interesting ideas, like how a school administration might react to a silent strike and how silence can calm the soul.
    • 4/5
      The fifth grade boys challenged the girls to a contest. Who can go without talking for two days--boys or girls. The rules were set and the contest was on. Right away the teachers begin to suspect that the kids are up to something. Who will win? And how will the teachers react.
    • 4/5
      This is an awesome book for middle school students. It's a typical "boys are better" "nuh-uh, girls are better" argument, without the sexism.
    • 4/5
      The teachers at Dave's school call the 5th-graders The Unshushables, because they never stop talking. But that all changes when Dave and Lynsey start and boys-vs-girls contest to see who can last the longest without talking at all.A fun read, but there's nothing earth-shattering here.
    • 5/5
      This was such a cool book! How The Unshushables are almost complete silent for two whole days! I bet if you add up all the times the fifth graders were quiet in a year,they would only fill up a few days!
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed No talking. it was a great book, but thing I didn't like about it was in the begnning, Dave Packer thought highly of boys, and not girls. In the book No Talking by Andrew Clements, the entire 5th grade has a contest to see who can talk less, boys or girls. Dave Packer keeps track of the boys and Lynsey Burgess kept track of the girls. The contest was for two days, but of course since they were at school they had to talk. They are only allowed to use three word sentences at a time. The teachers were in a uproar except for one creative teacher thought it was a good opportunity for them. Did the boys win? Did the girls win? Read the book.
    • 5/5
      The fifth graders at Laketon Elementary School like to talk. In fact, they talk so much that their teachers have dubbed their class "The Unshushables". But lately, Dave Packer has been doing some thinking about talking. He decides to see if he can go a whole day without talking and he very nearly succeeds. What stops him? In the cafeteria, he overhears Lynsey Burgess talking on and on about a sweater she'd wanted to buy. Before he can stop himself, he's insulting her, and soon after that he's challenging her and all the other girls in their class to a contest. Boys vs. girls: who can say the fewest words in the next 48 hours?Another hit from Andrew Clements. He takes an interesting situation, puts it in the hands of some very smart kid characters, adds a few bumbling grownups who eventually see the error of their ways, and wraps it all up with great humor. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Fifth grader, Dave, reads a book about Ghandi for his report on India. He becomes interested in the idea of 'not talking', something Ghandi did for his own spiritual development. In a verbal fight with a girl classmate, Dave challenges her to keep quiet. Suddently, a contest develops and spreads to all the fifth graders, where the contestants are the boys against the girls. Who will win this battle among the noisiest group of fifth graders ever to go through this primary school? What lessons will they learn?
    • 5/5
      This was another mind bending school story. I want to try what they did just to see what would happen. It was a very satisfying book. I really enjoyed it.
    • 4/5
      What a great book this would be to read to a talkative class! The 5th graders have always been a little out of control with their nonstop talking. But then the boys challenge the girls to see who can go through their day without talking. It is hard and the teachers have different reactions, but in the end the entire school is a little more thoughtful.
    • 5/5
      good book for kids
    • 3/5
      Clements may not be the great wordsmiths of our times, but his stories really speak to kids. The premises are basic, easy and enjoyable. I think this classroom-centered book would be a winner for most kids, given the positive message and straight-forward execution.
    • 4/5
      I read this one with my fifth-grade son. We love Andrew Clements, and this one didn't disappoint. What happens when a very chatty fifth-grade class stops talking? As the boys and girls compete to say the fewest words, the teachers are perplexed and then angry, but students and teachers alike end up learning a lot about communication. Clements has an uncanny way of accurately capturing the dynamics between students and teachers. This doesn't beat our favorite Clements' book, Frindle, but it is worth a read.
    • 5/5
      Great book about the whole fifth grade having a no talking contest between the boys and girls. Certainly, the teachers are surprised and must figure out how to deal with this normally rowdy group being so quiet in class.
    • 4/5
      This was *so* funny! Clements is kinda the Spinelli for the younger set, imo. It had insight, poignancy, that kind of thing - but mostly I just couldn't stop laughing.
    • 5/5
      "The Unshushables" are the non-stop, talking 24/7 fifth graders in Dave Packer's class. After reading about Mahatma Ghandi and his ritual of not talking one day a week to clear his mind, Dave, a member of the unshushables, decides to give this practice a try. When he has an encounter with a classmate, Lynsey, a fellow chatterbox, the boys and girls of Laketon Elementary are drawn into a silent battle of boys vs. girls for 48 silent hours. The boys and girls can only speak to answer questions at school and even then, can only answer in 3 words. These short answers and overall silence cause teachers and administrators to look at how the kids are really acting and try to figure out what's really going on. The book allows the reader to think how we communicate and why as we see the 5th graders go through their silent battle. A very enjoyable read recommended for the early YA set.
    • 5/5
      Loving this author! I love the power he gives the children in his book to make changes to their environment without disrespecting authority. I love that in each of the books that we, Julia and I, have read, he is using the power of language/communication to make change. Great book to have ready with my 7 year old!
    • 4/5
      Andrew Clements is another author that I love to share with kids. I read this book because I heard of other teachers who were using it in their classrooms as the first chapter book read aloud of the year; I wanted to know what all the hype was about. I am so glad that I picked it up, carried it around in my bag, and finally got around to reading it.I must say, that I can so relate, text-to-self connection, with this book/story. This book should be that way for kids as well. Clements puts the reader in a typical school setting. Fifth grade is about the time that boys and girls alike start to realize that the other sex does not have cooties anymore. This group is not quite there yet, but somehow they manage to get past that and become friends/allies.I laughed out loud reading this because the events are so real and Clements makes them so funny. The teachers are torn as to which group of 5th graders they like better, the "unshushables," or the new, only 3 words spoken at a time 5th graders. Many of the teachers take advantage of this new communication and use it to their benefit, but others can't stand it.I would reccommend this book for 3rd grade and up. Even as an adult I enjoyed it immensely!
    • 3/5
      This is a Nutmeg nominated book. It's a quality effort from Clements, but not my favorite. As always, Clements takes a clever idea, plops it into an elementary school system, and lets the fun run wild.
    • 5/5
      The fifth grade class is so noisy they're known as the unshushables. But, after studying about Gandhi, Dave tries to keep silent for a whole day. He isn't successful because he can't help ridiculing the girls' conversations. suddenly, it's the boys against the girls in a contest of no talking. Can the teachers deal with this new development? It turns out that they, too, learn something from this surprising experiment.
    • 5/5
      We read this book as a class, the kids loved the humour in it :-) Great book, will be reading again to future classes :-)
    • 5/5
      Not just a fun book for young people, this is a marvelous examination of communication techniques, language skills, collaboration, and bridge-building between factions.

    Book preview

    No Talking - Andrew Clements

    CHAPTER 2

    GANDHI

    When something happens, there’s usually a simple explanation. But that simple explanation is almost never the full story. Here’s the simple explanation anyway: Dave had decided to stop talking for a whole day because of something he’d read in a book.

    See? Very simple, very clear. But it’s not the whole story.

    So here’s a little more.

    Dave and a partner had to prepare a report on India—not a long one, just some basic facts. Something about the history, something about the government, something about the land and the industry, something about the Indian people and their culture. Five minutes or less.

    Dave’s report partner was Lynsey Burgess, and neither one of them was happy about that—there were some boy-girl problems at Laketon Elementary School. But this isn’t the time to tell about that.

    Even though Dave and Lynsey had to give their report together, they both agreed that they did not want to prepare it together. So they divided the topics in half, and each worked alone.

    Dave was a good student, and he had found two books about India, and he had checked them out of the library. He hadn’t read both books, not completely—he wasn’t that good a student. But he had read parts of both books.

    Dave thought the most interesting section in each book was the part about how India became independent, how the country broke away from England to become a free nation—sort of like the United States did.

    And Dave thought the most interesting person in the story of India’s independence was Mahatma Gandhi.

    Dave was amazed by Gandhi. This one skinny little man practically pushed the whole British army out of India all by himself. But he didn’t use weapons or violence. He fought with words and ideas. It was an incredible story, all of it true.

    And in one of the books, Dave read this about Gandhi:

    For many years, one day each week

    Gandhi did not speak at all. Gandhi believed

    this was a way to bring

    order to his mind.

    Dave read that bit of information on Thursday afternoon, and he read it again on Sunday night as he prepared for his oral report. And it made him wonder what that would be like—to go a whole day without saying a single word. And Dave began to wonder if not talking would bring order to his mind too.

    In fact, Dave wondered what that meant, to bring order to his mind. Could something as simple as not talking change the way your mind worked? Seemed like it must have been good for Gandhi. But what would it do for a regular kid in New Jersey?

    Would not talking make him . . . smarter? Would he finally understand fractions? If he had more order in his mind, would he be able to look at a sentence and see which word was an adverb—instead of just guessing? And how about sports? Would someone with a more orderly mind be a better baseball player?

    Powerful questions.

    So Dave decided to zip his lip and give it a try. Was it hard for him to keep quiet?You bet, especially at first, like when he got to the bus stop, where his friends were arguing about why the Jets had lost to the Patriots. But Dave had learned quickly that by nodding and smiling, by frowning and shrugging, by shaking his head, by giving a thumbs-up or a high five, or even by just putting his hands in his coat pockets and turning away, not talking was possible. And by the time he’d ridden the bus to school, Dave had gotten pretty good at fitting in without speaking up.

    There. That explains what’s going on a little better. And it’s probably enough, at least for the moment. But there’s more. There’s always more.

    And now we’re back in class on Monday with Dave, who got through the rest of social studies without saying a word. And when the bell rang at the end of the period, it was time for fifth-grade lunch.

    More than a hundred and twenty-five kids began hurrying toward the cafeteria. And by the time they got there, the fifth graders were already talking like crazy—all except one.

    CHAPTER 3

    INSULTS

    If you had to shut up for five minutes, I bet the whole top of your head would explode!" As those words flew out of his mouth, Dave had two thoughts.

    First, he thought, Darn it!—because he remembered he’d been trying not to talk at all.

    And his second thought was, Gandhi probably wouldn’t have said that. Because it wasn’t a very nice thing to say.

    But that’s what Dave said, and he said it to Lynsey Burgess, and there was a reason he said it.

    So it’s time to back up a little and explain.

    • • •

    Dave had gotten through the lunch line without a peep. He had pointed at the pizza plate, then pointed at the fruit cup. He had nodded for yes, please and shook his head for no, thanks. He had grabbed some milk from the cooler and flashed his lunch pass at Mrs. Vitelli. And he had smiled a lot.

    No talking? No problem.

    Then he’d sat down at a table with some of his friends, just like always. But instead of jumping into the conversation, Dave had kept a pleasant look on his face, and he’d kept his mouth full of food.

    No talking? No problem.

    And because he wasn’t talking, Dave had focused all his energy on listening.

    Listening at the lunch table, really listening, was a brand-new experience for him. Because most of the time Dave was a loudmouth.

    See? There’s something more about Dave. And it makes Dave’s reaction to Gandhi make more sense. Because if Dave himself was a loudmouth, a real tongue-flapper, then someone like Gandhi who could keep completely quiet would seem that much more amazing.

    Because Dave really did love to talk. He could talk and talk and talk about almost anything—baseball, cars, dinosaurs, rock hunting, soccer, snowboarding, waterskiing, favorite books, best football players, camping, canoeing, PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox, comic books, TV shows, movies—you name it. Dave had a long, long list of interests, and he had plenty of opinions.

    Plus, talking always made Dave feel like he was in charge. It was sort of like being a police officer out in the middle of traffic. As long as he did the talking, the traffic went the way he wanted it to. This was especially useful if insults started flying around. When it came to dishing out the put-downs, Dave was a pro.

    But this lunchtime, all the other loudmouths were getting a chance to spout off.

    So Dave had chewed his pizza, and sipped his milk, and listened. And after a minute or two he began listening to Lynsey Burgess. But only because he couldn’t help it.

    Even though she was sitting behind him at the next table, and even though the cafeteria was almost bursting with noise, Lynsey had a sharp voice, the kind that cuts like a hacksaw.

    ". . . so I said, ‘Are you serious?’ and she said, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ and I said,‘Because I saw it first,’ and I did, and it was

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