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2.98 AVERAGE
2.98 AVERAGE
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read this book in one sitting and honestly wish I'd never picked it up. What a frustrating and pointless book. I hated the main character. I hated the writing. The only point it gets in its favor is (unfortunately) how it's true that most things seem to be blamed on the teacher in real life, too. Wish I could go back and wipe this book from my brain. Ugh.
What an irritating book. It was like watching the presidential debates.
hmmm. good, but they main character is such a jerk it's hard to see anything else! Easy read. It was just okay. Cool end though.
Aaron recommended that I read this book. I really like it, but it stirred up unpleasant emotions for me. Having been a teacher and having been on the receiving end of miscontrued events where administrators turn on you, I related quite strongly to this book. Too strongly. So much so that I wouldn't even discuss the book with Aaron when I was finished, even though he wanted to. Well done.
This is a great book in an innovative style. It's one of those great stories that heavily uses your own perspectives to color your reading of the book. As a student, I could understand the protagonist's position, and as a teacher, I knew why she did what she did. I recommend this book to literature circles of all ages, because at any age this book is something to talk about.
I had a difficult time with the fact that the administrators didn't really listen to the main character or the teacher involved. It is, however, a good story about how the media and rumor can blow situations out of proportion. And the ending was rather ironic, if not contrived.
21%
can't give it a one-star rating because I didn't hate it, but Nothing But the Truth was actually pretty bad?? essentially, it's about this student, Phillip Malloy, who starts humming the national anthem when he's supposed to stand at respectful silence, and he doesn't listen when the teacher, Miss Narwin, tells him to stop. so he does this again and again and eventually gets suspended for causing a disruption, and he tells his parents that it was "unfair," and his little lie blows up and becomes this whole national scandal.
Nothing But the Truth is an epistolary novel, which I usually enjoy, but in this case, it didn't really work. the files used to tell the story were very vague and almost... flat?, everything said in the whole book was so cheesy and not at all believable, so it was really hard to get to know the characters. even Phillip, who is our MC, I still know almost nothing about. the files also made the book wayyyy faster than it should have been, and it was hard to keep up with the plot sometimes.
Phillip was so annoying!! he caused a disruption in Miss Narwin's class TWICE, and didn't stop the twenty times she told him too. and then he refused to apologize to her. he also told his parents that "everyone hates Miss Narwin" and that he got suspended because "she has it in for me," when really, that's not the case. Miss Narwin was a fair and reasonable teacher, but Phillip was mad because he was too lazy to get a good grade in her English class. the amount of lies he somehow got away with in this book was astonishing. Miss Narwin was essentially fired because of this kid!
also, the ending wasn't that great either. to be honest, it wasn't an ending at all. there's not really any sense of finality to it or anything. Phillip ends up transferring to a new school so he doesn't have to deal with Miss Narwin (cue the eye roll) and when his homeroom teacher asks him if he wants to sing the national anthem, he starts crying and says he doesn't know the words. and then it ends. I really don't see the point in this? his web of lies finally caught up to him, oh no, now he's crying.
anyways, Nothing But the Truth was way too fast, had two-dimensional characters (more like one-dimensional tbh), and an unbearable MC who almost gets a teacher fired because he failed her class.
can't give it a one-star rating because I didn't hate it, but Nothing But the Truth was actually pretty bad?? essentially, it's about this student, Phillip Malloy, who starts humming the national anthem when he's supposed to stand at respectful silence, and he doesn't listen when the teacher, Miss Narwin, tells him to stop. so he does this again and again and eventually gets suspended for causing a disruption, and he tells his parents that it was "unfair," and his little lie blows up and becomes this whole national scandal.
Nothing But the Truth is an epistolary novel, which I usually enjoy, but in this case, it didn't really work. the files used to tell the story were very vague and almost... flat?, everything said in the whole book was so cheesy and not at all believable, so it was really hard to get to know the characters. even Phillip, who is our MC, I still know almost nothing about. the files also made the book wayyyy faster than it should have been, and it was hard to keep up with the plot sometimes.
Phillip was so annoying!! he caused a disruption in Miss Narwin's class TWICE, and didn't stop the twenty times she told him too. and then he refused to apologize to her. he also told his parents that "everyone hates Miss Narwin" and that he got suspended because "she has it in for me," when really, that's not the case. Miss Narwin was a fair and reasonable teacher, but Phillip was mad because he was too lazy to get a good grade in her English class. the amount of lies he somehow got away with in this book was astonishing. Miss Narwin was essentially fired because of this kid!
also, the ending wasn't that great either. to be honest, it wasn't an ending at all. there's not really any sense of finality to it or anything. Phillip ends up transferring to a new school so he doesn't have to deal with Miss Narwin (cue the eye roll) and when his homeroom teacher asks him if he wants to sing the national anthem, he starts crying and says he doesn't know the words. and then it ends. I really don't see the point in this? his web of lies finally caught up to him, oh no, now he's crying.
anyways, Nothing But the Truth was way too fast, had two-dimensional characters (more like one-dimensional tbh), and an unbearable MC who almost gets a teacher fired because he failed her class.
challenging
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Review originally posted on Tsundokuholic.
Nothing But the Truth is called a “documentary novel” because the story is told through memos, diary entries, letters, telegrams (what?), newspaper articles, and transcripts of discussions, conversations, speeches, and a radio show. It takes place in the early 90’s in New Hampshire where 14-year-old Philip hopes to make the track team at school. His dad was talented enough to be headed for the Olympics but messed everything up by dropping out of college. I wasn’t aware that graduating was a prerequisite for being in the Olympics… Anyway, the one thing standing in Philip’s way is his English teacher, Miss Narwin. Or, at least, that’s how Philip sees it. The D he receives in her class blocks him from even trying out for track, as candidates must pass all their classes. Philip blames his poor grade on Miss Narwin’s lack of sense of humor, assuring everyone that she has it out for him. How DARE she give him the grade he earned for doing NO work??? Teachers, amirite?????
In reality, he’s lazy. He would rather make lame jokes and then pat himself on the back for his lame jokes than engage in the learning material at all. Apparently he’s a nice, bright boy, even though all the evidence says otherwise. He’s basically that punk ass kid you went to school with who never did any work because it was “too hard” without even trying, never took responsibility for anything, and whined every time work was assigned. He’s the worst.
In spring students’ homerooms are switched for some BS reason and Philip is assigned to Miss Narwin’s homeroom. The daily morning announcements include the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner, at which time students are asked to remain respectfully silent. Philip wants to be transferred out of Miss Narwin’s homeroom and English class and his grand plan to achieve this is to annoy the crap out of her by humming the national anthem. He does this two days in a row and is sent to the assistant principal, where he again whines that everything is Miss Narwin’s fault because she doesn’t have a sense of humor. Philip is offered a chance to apologize, but bolstered by his idiot father’s advice to stand up for himself (leaving out the caveat that if you’re lying, maybe don’t be a douche) and refuses. He is given a 2 day suspension and sent home.
During all this, Miss Narwin, a 21 year teaching veteran who is well-respected and liked, is feeling like she’s having trouble connecting to “today’s” kids, who don’t want to do any work and are always asking why they need to know whatever it is she’s teaching. She asks the principal for money to go to a summer workshop to learn how to connect to the modern 90’s kid, but her request is denied due to budget constraints and the superintendent’s wish to put money towards endeavors that will bring people out to school sporting events. Classic public school problem. Sometimes she thinks she should retire, but she loves teaching too much. She even sees the potential hidden beneath Philip’s layers of ass-hattery, and objects to the school’s decision to suspend him.
Of course Philip is too wrapped up in his own self-pity to think about what a jerk he’s being, and his parents are supporting him wholeheartedly. They’re morons. When they asked for his side of the story they wind up talking over him so much they miss half of what happened and suddenly the story is no longer that Philip was humming, he was SINGING. One moment the parents are like “we know we’re not super patriotic” and the next minute they’re going to their loudmouth neighbor Ted who’s running for the school board and telling him Philip only acted out of the INTENSE patriotism they instilled in him. There is also no mention of that pesky “respectful silence” rule.
A newspaper reporter who happened to be interviewing the Ted about the election writes up a story about the supposed injustice Philip is suffering. The story catapults from a local scandal to a national drama overnight. A right-wing talk radio station (ugh the WORST) picks it up. We all know how this goes….they immediately assume everything in the story is a fact, tear Miss Narwin to shreds, shut down the ONE caller who’s like “um maybe we don’t know the whole story considering there’s only ONE article about it?”, and implore listeners to write letters to Miss Narwin letting her know just how they feel. Philip is overwhelmed by the letters and telegrams (telegrams? in the 90’s?) of support while Miss Narwin is devastated by the hateful messages she receives.
The administration plays literal telephone to try and figure out what’s going on as they all have a different recollection of what happened. The superintendent proudly and loudly states that there’s no district-wide rule against singing the national anthem (ignoring the high school’s request for respectful silence during the anthem), the principal had no idea anything even happened but is supportive of Miss Narwin, and the assistant principal who’s in charge of discipline is trying to relay the actual events to the other two. The superintendent speaks with Ted and strikes a deal: he will tell Miss Narwin to take a leave of absence in exchange for money for her workshop if Ted promotes passing the school budget on his campaign trail. Miss Narwin is disgusted and finally tells her story to a reporter only to find out the article will never be printed. Shaken and downtrodden from her experience, she goes to Florida to see her sister while she contemplates resigning. Philip transfers to a private school after facing backlash from students and faculty, including his crush and the track coach. Yes, the only time Philip regrets his actions is when his crush and coach are like “you’re a douche”. And then pouts until he’s transferred to a new school. Jerk. The school is all excited to have Philip there, encouraging him to sing along to the national anthem all he wants! He cries and says he doesn’t know the words. Because he’s the freakin worst.
Being older and working in the education field myself, I can appreciate the moral of the story and the message it conveys even though it still annoyed the crap out of me. The book is a scathing commentary on the media, bureaucracy, and the increasingly entitled youth culture. NOTHING is Philip’s fault in his or his parents’ eyes. They believe his story, no questions asked. While it’s great to support your kids, it’s also important to remember that kids can be douchey liars. Maybe dig a little deeper to get to the truth. Their assumptions about what happened to their son inflate the story to increasingly pretentious heights. They’re the ones who invent the point that he was SINGING (humming) to show his PATRIOTISM (to annoy his teacher so he get out of her class). Every time Philip’s like “well that’s not really what happened..”, his parents won’t hear it. Like Steven Avery’s mentally handicapped nephew in Making A Murderer, Philip hears the “singing” version of the story so many time HE starts to believe that’s what happened, even though he DOESN’T KNOW THE WORDS TO THE SONG. Once the national media gets a hold of it, the bastardized story is taken as gospel truth and used by a talk radio host to get his fans into a patriotic tizzy, much like most of Fox News. Any attempt at logic is shut down as being unpatriotic and the teacher is immediately villified. Sensationalism is more important than the truth. The school board is more concerned with getting the budget passed and saving their own incompetent asses than supporting a dedicated employee of 21 years. This whole situation is so frustrating because it happens every day across the world.
Despite the fact that the book brings to light serious issues, I still can’t give it more than 2 stars. The dialogue was dull and sounded like it was written by a high school student who doesn’t care much for writing. Kind of like how you used to write dialogue when you were 7 with lots of short, clipped sentences. There were also a lot of phrases used that sounded out of place. I’m pretty sure phrases like “far-out” and “he’s still sore at me” and “you’re a crackerjack runner” sounded dated and cheesy in 1991. I mean I was only like 5 at that point, but I’m pretty certain NO ONE spoke like that. Did anyone ever speak like that outside of a 1930’s radio show? The other portions that weren’t straight dialogue (memos, articles, etc.) were also dry and very repetitive. The characters were deplorable, but good dialogue can save a book. Like Gone Girl has AWFUL characters but I still loved the book because they didn’t talk like they had a 140 character limit. This book had the double whammy of horrible characters and lackluster dialogue.
The author’s intentions and the statement the book made were good and thought-provoking, but the execution left much to be desired. And right now I desire to punch a pillow.
Nothing But the Truth is called a “documentary novel” because the story is told through memos, diary entries, letters, telegrams (what?), newspaper articles, and transcripts of discussions, conversations, speeches, and a radio show. It takes place in the early 90’s in New Hampshire where 14-year-old Philip hopes to make the track team at school. His dad was talented enough to be headed for the Olympics but messed everything up by dropping out of college. I wasn’t aware that graduating was a prerequisite for being in the Olympics… Anyway, the one thing standing in Philip’s way is his English teacher, Miss Narwin. Or, at least, that’s how Philip sees it. The D he receives in her class blocks him from even trying out for track, as candidates must pass all their classes. Philip blames his poor grade on Miss Narwin’s lack of sense of humor, assuring everyone that she has it out for him. How DARE she give him the grade he earned for doing NO work??? Teachers, amirite?????
In reality, he’s lazy. He would rather make lame jokes and then pat himself on the back for his lame jokes than engage in the learning material at all. Apparently he’s a nice, bright boy, even though all the evidence says otherwise. He’s basically that punk ass kid you went to school with who never did any work because it was “too hard” without even trying, never took responsibility for anything, and whined every time work was assigned. He’s the worst.
In spring students’ homerooms are switched for some BS reason and Philip is assigned to Miss Narwin’s homeroom. The daily morning announcements include the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner, at which time students are asked to remain respectfully silent. Philip wants to be transferred out of Miss Narwin’s homeroom and English class and his grand plan to achieve this is to annoy the crap out of her by humming the national anthem. He does this two days in a row and is sent to the assistant principal, where he again whines that everything is Miss Narwin’s fault because she doesn’t have a sense of humor. Philip is offered a chance to apologize, but bolstered by his idiot father’s advice to stand up for himself (leaving out the caveat that if you’re lying, maybe don’t be a douche) and refuses. He is given a 2 day suspension and sent home.
During all this, Miss Narwin, a 21 year teaching veteran who is well-respected and liked, is feeling like she’s having trouble connecting to “today’s” kids, who don’t want to do any work and are always asking why they need to know whatever it is she’s teaching. She asks the principal for money to go to a summer workshop to learn how to connect to the modern 90’s kid, but her request is denied due to budget constraints and the superintendent’s wish to put money towards endeavors that will bring people out to school sporting events. Classic public school problem. Sometimes she thinks she should retire, but she loves teaching too much. She even sees the potential hidden beneath Philip’s layers of ass-hattery, and objects to the school’s decision to suspend him.
Spoiler
Of course Philip is too wrapped up in his own self-pity to think about what a jerk he’s being, and his parents are supporting him wholeheartedly. They’re morons. When they asked for his side of the story they wind up talking over him so much they miss half of what happened and suddenly the story is no longer that Philip was humming, he was SINGING. One moment the parents are like “we know we’re not super patriotic” and the next minute they’re going to their loudmouth neighbor Ted who’s running for the school board and telling him Philip only acted out of the INTENSE patriotism they instilled in him. There is also no mention of that pesky “respectful silence” rule.
A newspaper reporter who happened to be interviewing the Ted about the election writes up a story about the supposed injustice Philip is suffering. The story catapults from a local scandal to a national drama overnight. A right-wing talk radio station (ugh the WORST) picks it up. We all know how this goes….they immediately assume everything in the story is a fact, tear Miss Narwin to shreds, shut down the ONE caller who’s like “um maybe we don’t know the whole story considering there’s only ONE article about it?”, and implore listeners to write letters to Miss Narwin letting her know just how they feel. Philip is overwhelmed by the letters and telegrams (telegrams? in the 90’s?) of support while Miss Narwin is devastated by the hateful messages she receives.
The administration plays literal telephone to try and figure out what’s going on as they all have a different recollection of what happened. The superintendent proudly and loudly states that there’s no district-wide rule against singing the national anthem (ignoring the high school’s request for respectful silence during the anthem), the principal had no idea anything even happened but is supportive of Miss Narwin, and the assistant principal who’s in charge of discipline is trying to relay the actual events to the other two. The superintendent speaks with Ted and strikes a deal: he will tell Miss Narwin to take a leave of absence in exchange for money for her workshop if Ted promotes passing the school budget on his campaign trail. Miss Narwin is disgusted and finally tells her story to a reporter only to find out the article will never be printed. Shaken and downtrodden from her experience, she goes to Florida to see her sister while she contemplates resigning. Philip transfers to a private school after facing backlash from students and faculty, including his crush and the track coach. Yes, the only time Philip regrets his actions is when his crush and coach are like “you’re a douche”. And then pouts until he’s transferred to a new school. Jerk. The school is all excited to have Philip there, encouraging him to sing along to the national anthem all he wants! He cries and says he doesn’t know the words. Because he’s the freakin worst.
Being older and working in the education field myself, I can appreciate the moral of the story and the message it conveys even though it still annoyed the crap out of me. The book is a scathing commentary on the media, bureaucracy, and the increasingly entitled youth culture. NOTHING is Philip’s fault in his or his parents’ eyes. They believe his story, no questions asked. While it’s great to support your kids, it’s also important to remember that kids can be douchey liars. Maybe dig a little deeper to get to the truth. Their assumptions about what happened to their son inflate the story to increasingly pretentious heights. They’re the ones who invent the point that he was SINGING (humming) to show his PATRIOTISM (to annoy his teacher so he get out of her class). Every time Philip’s like “well that’s not really what happened..”, his parents won’t hear it. Like Steven Avery’s mentally handicapped nephew in Making A Murderer, Philip hears the “singing” version of the story so many time HE starts to believe that’s what happened, even though he DOESN’T KNOW THE WORDS TO THE SONG. Once the national media gets a hold of it, the bastardized story is taken as gospel truth and used by a talk radio host to get his fans into a patriotic tizzy, much like most of Fox News. Any attempt at logic is shut down as being unpatriotic and the teacher is immediately villified. Sensationalism is more important than the truth. The school board is more concerned with getting the budget passed and saving their own incompetent asses than supporting a dedicated employee of 21 years. This whole situation is so frustrating because it happens every day across the world.
Despite the fact that the book brings to light serious issues, I still can’t give it more than 2 stars. The dialogue was dull and sounded like it was written by a high school student who doesn’t care much for writing. Kind of like how you used to write dialogue when you were 7 with lots of short, clipped sentences. There were also a lot of phrases used that sounded out of place. I’m pretty sure phrases like “far-out” and “he’s still sore at me” and “you’re a crackerjack runner” sounded dated and cheesy in 1991. I mean I was only like 5 at that point, but I’m pretty certain NO ONE spoke like that. Did anyone ever speak like that outside of a 1930’s radio show? The other portions that weren’t straight dialogue (memos, articles, etc.) were also dry and very repetitive. The characters were deplorable, but good dialogue can save a book. Like Gone Girl has AWFUL characters but I still loved the book because they didn’t talk like they had a 140 character limit. This book had the double whammy of horrible characters and lackluster dialogue.
The author’s intentions and the statement the book made were good and thought-provoking, but the execution left much to be desired. And right now I desire to punch a pillow.