Nick Allen is a kid with ideas. Most of his ideas are ways to get teachers to forget about assigning homework. But, when he gets to fifth grade he meets his match. Mrs. Granger is the language arts teacher, and famous for her love of words and her strictness. Although Nick finds he can't get her to forget about homework, he comes up with another plan. Mrs. Granger told him that the reason the word dog means an animal that barks is because everyone in America agrees that's what it means. And, every other word is the same way. Nick decides to test that idea. He starts calling a pen a frindle. And, he gets all of his friends to call it a frindle. Mrs. Granger is upset. Pen is perfectly good word, and she thinks Nick is just being disruptive. But, Nick likes his new word and so do a lot of people. The word becomes famous, and so do Nick and Mrs. Granger as they stand on opposite sides of the issue. Who will win? Now that frindle is such a well known word, do either of them have any control over it now?