Nothing But the Truth (book)
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Nothing But the Truth (ISBN 0-380-71907-X) is a book written in 1991 by Avi. It is about a boy named Phillip Malloy who is suspended for "singing" during the United States National Anthem as it is played over the PA system at his high school, even though he knows he is supposed to be quiet. Malloy spins the incident to make it more attractive to his parents, and it quickly becomes a national story. In the end, the incident adversely affects the main characters involved.
The book focuses on the difficulty of determining the truth as the surrounding events can be distorted by various individuals for their own ends, and that serious consequences can result if one does not tell the truth.
Plot
Phillip Malloy is a ninth-grader at Harrison High School. His main goal in high school was to join track team, but cannot because of his low grade in English. Malloy believes that his English teacher, Miss Margaret "Peg" Narwin, is purposely giving him failing grades because he believes she dislikes him. To make matters worse for him, he is transferred to her homeroom at the semester break.
One day in homeroom, Malloy decides to "sing along" (hum actually, in an insubordinate way) with the National Anthem as it is played over the PA system for the morning announcements, even though he knows he is supposed to be silent. Miss Narwin tells him to stop, so he does. The next day he sings ("hums") again. This time Miss Narwin sends him to the vice principal's office where he is threatened with suspension and told to keep quiet during the National Anthem. The following day, Malloy sings for the third time. When he is sent to the office, he is suspended for being sent to the office twice in one week.
Malloy's mother has to take him home in the middle of the day. He then talks to his father, who is made to believe, through Malloy's spinning the event, that he is suspended for singing the National Anthem. His father tells their friend, who is a candidate for school board and immediately takes up the cause of fighting what he sees as the suppression of patriotism in the schools. Also, a reporter for the local newspaper interviews Malloy. The incident escalates as the Associated Press does a story about him, which is picked up by a radio talk show host who condemns the suppression of American patriotism. Messages condemning Miss Narwin and praising Malloy begin flooding in from across the U.S.
In the end, Miss Narwin takes a sabatical until the next year's start. Malloy ends up going to Washington Academy because of all the problems. He describes Washington Academy as a "geeky, private school." The book ends with him crying when his new teacher asks him to lead the class in the national anthem. It seems he never actually knew the words.
Writing style
Nothing But the Truth is not written in the normal novel style. It is written as dialogue transcripts, telephone conversations, letters, telegrams, diary entries and memos.External links
- [Nothing But the Truth at www.iland.net/~bshull] - This website has: a game; an author biography; helpful links; reflections on the book; a summary; a set of information, activities, and quizzes about literary elements; a quiz over the book; and two activities for teachers.
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