Frindle
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40 free Frindle trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Frindle, the 1996 novel by Andrew Clements, grows out of one simple idea: what happens if a fifth grader gives an ordinary pen a brand-new name and refuses to back down? Nick Allen tries it, his strict teacher Mrs. Granger pushes back, and a classroom joke turns into an argument the whole country joins. This quiz ranges across all fifteen chapters. There is plenty on chapters 1 to 5, where Nick's earlier schemes, Mrs. Granger's reputation and the question that starts everything are set up. Other questions follow the fight over the new word, the reporters and business deals it attracts, and the ending ten years on. A few look at how the novel came to be written. It is pitched at readers in grades 3 to 6 who have finished the novel, and at teachers, librarians and parents who want a ready-made comprehension check. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so the set works for a reading group, a classroom review or a printed handout.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Frindle, third-grader Nick gets his classmates to turn Miss Deaver's room into what?
A tropical island
A tropical island took shape with paper palm trees, sand on the floor and the thermostat turned right up. The principal walked in to find the first-year teacher giving a hula lesson.
Q 02In Frindle, pupils swear that gum-spotting teacher Mrs. Granger has which superhuman power?
X-ray vision
X-ray vision is the kids' only explanation for how she spots gum the instant it goes in. She is short and white-haired, yet one look from her dark gray eyes can make any student feel tiny.
Q 03In Frindle, how does Mrs. Granger answer Nick's stalling question about where words come from?
Assigns him a report on it
Mrs. Granger assigns him a report on it, to be given aloud the very next day. Nick's 'teacher-stopper' had sidetracked every teacher before her, and this time it only earned him extra work.
Q 04In Frindle, which school event do the fifth graders hijack by holding up pens and shouting?
The class photo
The class photo could not be retaken, because the photographer had run out of film. So the fifth grade's official portrait that year shows every child holding up a pen.
Q 05In Frindle, Mrs. Granger's long-kept letter to Nick admits she chose to play which part?
The villain
The villain is the part she gave herself, because she saw that a good fight would keep Nick pushing his word. She had been rooting for frindle almost from the start.
Q 06In Frindle, on which morning does Mrs. Granger find a mystery gift left at her door?
Christmas
Christmas brings a ring at the bell, nobody at the door, and a parcel she expects to hold a macaroni craft. Inside is a fountain pen engraved to say she may call it anything she likes.
Q 07In Frindle, grown-up Nick quietly gives a million dollars to set up what in Mrs. Granger's name?
A scholarship fund
A scholarship fund carries her name, set up by a former student who stays anonymous. The news arrives in an official letter from the superintendent, and she assumes it must be a mistake.
Q 08In Frindle, Nick pictures the clash between his mother and the school principal as part of which game?
Chess
Chess gives Chapter 9 its title: the principal is Mrs. Granger's queen and Mrs. Allen is Nick's. His mother wins the exchange by calling the whole fuss an overreaction to a harmless experiment.
Q 09In Frindle, what penalty does Mrs. Granger's notice promise any student caught saying the new word?
Copying lines in detention
Copying lines in detention was meant to stamp the word out, but the kids wore it as a badge of honor. Soon so many were being kept behind that parents phoned the school to complain.
Q 10In Frindle, who does Mrs. Granger tell Nick really decides what the words in the dictionary mean?
The people who use them
The people who use them decide, she says, so a new word can reach the dictionary once enough speakers adopt it. That single answer hands Nick the plan that fills the rest of his school year.
Q 11In Frindle, which bird's high-pitched chirp does Nick copy all year to bother teacher Mrs. Avery?
A blackbird
A blackbird's shrill peep is hard for a hunter to trace, and it worked just as well in a classroom. Mrs. Avery wrongly blamed another pupil, said sorry, and never found out who was chirping.
Q 12In Frindle, Nick decides that Mrs. Avery's hooked nose makes his teacher look like which bird?
A hawk
A hawk is just the sort of hunter that small birds baffle with shrill, hard-to-place calls, which is what gave Nick his idea. He kept the chirping going at least once a week until summer.
Q 13In Frindle, Mrs. Granger makes anyone caught chewing gum wear it pinned to their shirt on what?
An index card
Q 21In Frindle, what does Mrs. Granger ask Nick to do to the envelope holding her letter to him?
Sign and date it
Mrs. Granger has him sign and date it across the back, so he can be sure later that nothing inside was changed. She promises to hand it over only when the whole fight is finished.
Q 22In Frindle, which school principal visits the Allen home to ask Nick's parents to end the fuss?
Mrs. Chatham
Mrs. Chatham phones on October first and comes that same evening, unsmiling, to explain that pupils no longer respect the rules. Nick's mother replies that it all sounds rather silly.
Q 23In Frindle, which frowned-upon word does Nick point out is already printed in the dictionary?
Ain't
An index card with the gum stuck on is safety-pinned to the culprit's shirt. It then has to come back the next morning with a parent's signature, so the lesson follows them home.
Q 14In Frindle, what must the Allen boys do first after school, a rule brother James later praised?
Their homework
Their homework always came first, and James wrote home from college to say the habit had paid off in his grades. The rule never troubled Nick until Mrs. Granger's assignments arrived.
Q 15In Frindle, which game can Nick hear outside while he is stuck indoors researching dictionaries?
Baseball
Baseball is under way in a friend's yard down the street on a beautiful September afternoon, while Mrs. Granger's 35 vocabulary words alone take Nick almost an hour.
Q 16In Frindle, where does Nick look next after his dictionary's own introduction proves too hard?
An encyclopedia
An encyclopedia for children comes off the family-room shelf first, then the adult set, of which he follows about half. Sure he cannot fill even three minutes, Nick suddenly gets an idea.
Q 17In Frindle, which 1700s dictionary maker does Nick describe during his very long presentation?
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson and his enormous dictionary leave the class in awe, and at first Mrs. Granger looks delighted. Eighteen minutes in Nick spots her sneaking a look at her watch and moves on to phase two.
Q 18In Frindle, toddler Nick's family knew that his made-up word 'gwagala' meant he wanted what?
Music
Music was what he meant, and he would bang his cassette player and sing-along tapes together to get them played. Only at preschool did he find that nobody else understood him.
Q 19In Frindle, which adult learns the new word after Nick, Janet and four friends keep asking for one?
A saleslady
A saleslady at the Penny Pantry store has no idea what Nick wants on his first visit. By the time Janet asks, she only wants to know which color, and Nick decides his word is real.
Q 20In Frindle, what do Nick and five friends draw up in his playroom to launch the new word?
An oath
An oath never to say 'pen' again makes the six of them the word's first loyal users. When Mrs. Granger later asks Nick to call the whole thing off, he says he cannot break it.
Ain't is the principal's example of a word the school forbids, raised to show why standards matter. Nick answers that it is in the dictionary, and for a moment none of the adults can reply.
Q 24In Frindle, which Westfield Gazette reporter puts the pupils' word war on the front page?
Judy Morgan
Judy Morgan hears from a coworker about a pupils' revolt and visits the school to investigate. In the parking lot she chats with a boy who says Nick will not talk to her, and he turns out to be Nick.
Q 25In Frindle, what does businessman Bud Lawrence do right after reading the newspaper story?
Files a trademark claim
Bud Lawrence files a trademark claim and starts selling pens stamped with the word, which sell out within a week. Once the story goes national, his lawyer warns that he needs a deal with Nick's family.
Q 26In Frindle, how does Mrs. Allen signal during the TV interview that she will answer for Nick?
Steps on his foot
Mrs. Allen steps on his foot when the reporter asks whether Mrs. Granger's anger surprised him, then calls her a fine teacher. The family had agreed on the signal before the crew arrived.
Q 27In Frindle, which TV network's evening news carries Nick's story to some 20 million viewers?
CBS
CBS runs it as a closing segment after a part-time staffer at the local station spots the story in the Westfield paper. It is her first assignment ever to reach the national news.
Q 28In Frindle, the producer of which real late-night host's show sees Nick's story on the evening news?
David Letterman
David Letterman's producer is among the millions watching, as is a writer for a national magazine. Before long Nick is riding in limousines to TV studios and telling his friends all about it.
Q 29In Frindle, what kind of business does Nick's father keep being pulled away from by the fuss?
A hardware store
A hardware store is where Mr. Allen would rather be, so he gladly signs Bud Lawrence's contract to make the bother go away. The deal gives Nick 30 percent of the profit on everything sold.
Q 30In Frindle, Mr. Allen banks his son's first frindle check and asks Bud Lawrence to do what?
Keep the payments secret
Bud agrees to keep the payments secret, because Mr. Allen wants Nick to learn to save on his own. That first check is for $2,250, and each later one goes into an account Nick knows nothing about.