40 Fun Facts About Nothing but the Truth (Avi)

What is Philip Malloy doing during the national anthem that gets him suspended in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

Humming along broke a rule that students stand silent while the recording played, and Philip kept it up for three mornings. His suspension then became a national news story.

What does Philip Malloy tearfully admit at his new school at the end of Nothing but the Truth?

He doesn't know the words, he says, when his new teacher invites him to lead the national anthem. Avi says many readers get angry at that last line, which tells him they cared.

In which New England state is Harrison High, the school at the center of Avi's Nothing but the Truth, located?

New Hampshire is home to the invented town of Harrison, though Avi took the idea from a real small-town uproar he had read about in a news story.

Which step, refused by Philip Malloy, would have spared him a suspension in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

An offer to apologize to his teacher was on the table, but Philip turned it down and was sent home for two days. The rules demanded it after two trips to the office in one week.

Which motive does Philip Malloy claim for making noise during the national anthem in Nothing but the Truth?

Patriotism is the reason he gives at school and again at home, where his parents believe him and urge him to stand up for his rights.

Which term grade in English bars Philip Malloy from track tryouts at Harrison High in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

D is the grade Miss Narwin gives him after a joke answer on the winter exam, and it makes him ineligible for the team he dreams of joining.

How does Miss Narwin's teaching career at Harrison High end once the scandal spreads in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

She resigns after the district, nervous about bad publicity, pushes her to take leave for the rest of the term. She suspects the offer is a first step toward being fired.

What is Philip Malloy really after when he disrupts the anthem in homeroom in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

A different teacher is the goal: a disturbance, he hopes, will see him moved away from the woman whose grade keeps him off the track team. He never explains that part at home.

Which private school with no track team does Philip Malloy end up attending in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

Washington Academy is his mother's choice after he refuses to go back to Harrison. The boy who started it all in order to run ends up somewhere he cannot compete.

Which neighbor, running for school board, makes Philip Malloy's suspension a campaign issue in Nothing but the Truth?

Ted Griffen hears the story from the Malloys, steers them to a reporter and wins his seat on the back of it. He used to chase Philip off his lawn.

Which grade is Philip Malloy in when a poor English mark keeps him off the track team in Nothing but the Truth?

Ninth grade is where the trouble finds him, in his first year at Harrison High. National news stories later get even that detail wrong.

Whose glory days as a runner hang over Philip Malloy's own track ambitions in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

His father gave up competitive running when he left his studies to take a sales job and support the family. He now pins those hopes on Philip.

Where does Philip Malloy confide the thoughts he hides from everyone else in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

His diary holds what he tells no one, so readers can set his private excuses beside what he says aloud. Miss Narwin's side comes through her private letters.

Which classic novel does Philip Malloy mock in a joke exam answer, angering Miss Narwin, in Nothing but the Truth?

The Call of the Wild gets only a wisecrack from Philip, who mocks its author for spending so long on a book about a dog. The flippant answer helps drag his English grade down.

Which competition does track-mad Philip Malloy dream of one day running in, in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

The Olympics are the dream, fed by hours of training and copies of a running magazine. By the end he is at a school with no squad to run for.

Which subtitle did Avi give Nothing but the Truth, a story told only through memos, letters and transcripts?

A Documentary Novel is the subtitle because no narrator ever steps in. Avi said he wanted to take himself out of the story and leave readers to decide what happened.

Which major children's book recognition did Avi's Nothing but the Truth receive the year after it was published?

Newbery Honor status came in 1992, a year after Avi's The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle earned the same. His first thought on that earlier news was that people would now read his new book.

Which job does Dr. Joseph Palleni, the man who actually suspends Philip Malloy, hold in Nothing but the Truth?

Assistant principal is his title and discipline is his job, yet strangers across the country blame Miss Narwin for a suspension she had no power to order.

What is the job of Jake Barlow, whose outrage helps turn Philip Malloy into a national story in Nothing but the Truth?

Talk radio host Jake Barlow reads the wire report on air and invites listeners to rage about it. Nearly all of them side with a boy they have met in one paragraph.

What happens to the Harrison school budget in the election held near the end of Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

Voters reject it by a wide margin, so sacrificing Miss Narwin to protect the vote achieved nothing. A candidate who campaigned on Philip's story wins a board seat in the same election.

Which state, where a relative has urged her to retire, does Miss Narwin leave for in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

Florida is home to Anita, the confidante she writes to throughout the book, who had long urged her to give up teaching. She goes only after losing the job she loved.

How does Miss Narwin respond when Philip Malloy is suspended after leaving her homeroom in Nothing but the Truth?

She objects to it, but the office insists the rule must stand. Reporters then cast her as the one who threw him out of school.

The grant Miss Narwin is refused in Avi's Nothing but the Truth goes instead to a teacher studying what?

Marching band techniques won the last of the money, since the superintendent loves sports and a band looks good at games. Miss Narwin had never asked for a grant in over twenty years.

What does Coach Jamison advise Philip Malloy to do about his English grade in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

Ask for extra work, the coach says, but Philip sulks instead. By the time he finally tries, the scandal has already moved him out of Miss Narwin's class.

Which classmate, sweet on Philip Malloy at first, drops him over his treatment of Miss Narwin in Nothing but the Truth?

Allison had planned to sit with him on the bus, but she tells the school she thinks he acted to land his teacher in trouble. Once she sees what he is doing, their friendship is over.

What does a friend say classmates are planning, sending Philip Malloy running home, in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

A petition asking Philip to admit he was wrong is the plan his friend reports, and it shows how far opinion at school has turned. He goes home and refuses to return to Harrison.

What does tuition at Philip Malloy's new private school largely use up in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

His college savings go on the fees, along with much of what his parents have put away, and his dad protests the move. The price of the scandal lands on Philip's own future.

Which school subject does Philip Malloy say he likes most, though he clowns through English, in Nothing but the Truth?

Math is the one class he studies for, and he admits liking it even if friends think that odd. It hints at the student he could have been for Miss Narwin.

How do Miss Narwin's other students describe her as a teacher when questioned in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

Fair is how classmates describe her, the opposite of the grudge-holder Philip paints at home. Their accounts of what happened in homeroom also differ from his.

Which joke-cracking teacher runs Philip Malloy's first homeroom at Harrison High in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

Mr. Lunser wisecracks through the morning announcements and once threatens to make Philip sing a solo. A schedule change then moves the boy to Miss Narwin's stricter room.

What does Superintendent Seymour tell a reporter about any ban on singing the anthem in Nothing but the Truth?

No such rule exists, he says, and lets her quote him, though a school memo tells students to stand silent. His off-the-cuff answer makes the suspension look like one teacher's whim.

A reporter from which real news outlet tries to tell Miss Narwin's side of the story in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Robert Duval sets out to give her account, but his piece is buried by an international crisis. Her version never reaches readers.

Into which form did Ronn Smith adapt Avi's Nothing but the Truth in 1997, suiting a story told in voices?

A stage play was a natural fit, since much of the book is already transcripts of conversations, set out like a script with each speaker named.

Who gave Edward Wortis, author of Nothing but the Truth, the childhood nickname Avi that became his pen name?

His twin sister came up with Avi when the two were about a year old. He was born Edward Irving Wortis in New York City, into a family full of writers.

Which Avi novel, his fiftieth book, won America's top children's literature medal in 2003?

Crispin: The Cross of Lead took the prize in 2003 and grew into a trilogy, with sequels in 2006 and 2010. By then Avi had been publishing for more than thirty years.

How does Dr. Doane rate Miss Narwin after denying her funding request in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

The school's best English teacher, Dr. Doane says, noting that Miss Narwin's students outscore others on tests like the SAT. Weeks later the same administration lets her take the blame.

Which legal term for evidence-gathering was Avi's working title for Nothing but the Truth?

Discovery is the lawyers' name for the file of evidence each side hands over, and Avi built the book as just such a file. The final title echoes the oath a witness swears in court.

Which Depression-era shows, built from memos, speeches and charts, helped inspire Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

Living Newspapers were theatre pieces that taught audiences about current events with every device to hand. Avi once tried to write one himself, about education.

Which flea-market find gave Avi the idea of telling Nothing but the Truth as a file of evidence?

A boxed mystery game held detective reports, photographs and interview transcripts, plus a sealed envelope naming the culprit. Avi later saw the same game printed as a book.

Which fictional wire service carries Philip Malloy's story to the whole country in Avi's Nothing but the Truth?

American Affiliated Press, Avi's stand-in for the Associated Press, boils the local article down to one paragraph. Stripped of detail, it puts all the blame on one teacher.