Nothing but the Truth: A Play

by Ronn Smith, Avi

Adapted from the Newbery Honor Book by Avi, this absorbing dramatic play explores the plight of ninth grader Philip Malloy, whose act of humming along with a tape of The Star-Spangled Banner results in national controversy. In this remarkable play, rendered in stark documentary style, the truth--0and nothing but the truth--is left up to the audience.

Genres: Plays

144 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1997

Reviews

[Tena Edlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good play with a lot of dramatic potential. Opportunities for tons of kids to get involved; super easy to stage. The ending is a real downer, though. Not totally sure it’s the vibe I want, but it definitely invites thinking and questions.

[Daisy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do you promise to admit the truth?...this book was very crazy. i enjoyed every second of it. the reason why i enjoyed this book was because it had action into it and it was mostly referred as a play. This story was about a young boy who got expelled and in trouble by his teacher just for singing the star spangled banner!His parents made such a big ruckus over this topic that even the radio got involved which seemed to make the teacher seem like the bad person. But what really brought my attention was the fact that this young boy said that he was saying the truth which in fact was truthful but he did not say the whole story. His generous teacher decided to take the blame at least for a little while but then she started thinking that maybe her student was going to win her over. Turns out that at the end of the story the boy who made such a big deal on singing the star spangled banner transferred to another school where he had the right to sing but yet he did not know the lyrics to the song!
I did not have it coming. All this time he did not know how to sing the song after all the blame and disrespect he put toward his teacher that just wanted to encourage him on being interested in literature.

[Alexa Cruz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing but the truth is a book that is focoused uppon a lie Phillup created about being patrotic just to get out of his English class because he hated the teacher. As Phillp started to tell this lie to people that he got suspended from school becaasue he was being patriotic and singing the national anthuem when really he was humming it to be adistraction in mrs.narwins class. This lie ended up making mrs.narwins reputation get worse (even though she got awards for being good at what she works for and all she wanted to do was help phillup.) causing her to start a new life in Florida with her sister and OPhillup go to a new school with the guilt eating him up.