by Avi
In 1644, poet John Milton wrote one of the earliest defenses in the Western world of freedom of speech in an essay titled Areopagitica.
2 is false: Satire is considered a protected form of free speech.
George Washington did not sign the Constitution.
Alexander Hamilton, whose signature is on the Constitution, died in a duel with Aaron Burr.
At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was the oldest delegate present.
1 is false: George Washington was the first person to sign the Constitution. He did not sign the Declaration of Independence.
The words “under God” were part of the original draft of the Pledge of Allegiance.
U.S. courts have ruled that it’s unconstitutional to force students to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Pledge of Allegiance was first recited in public schools in 1892 during Columbus Day observances.
1 is false: Originally written in 1892, the Pledge of Allegiance did not contain the words “under God” until 1954.
Three Sides of the Same Coin
You’ve heard of the phrase “There are two sides to every story.” But what happens when there are more? In Nothing But the Truth, Avi explores one event from multiple viewpoints. Each person has a different perception of what happened in Miss Narwin’s classroom. Who was telling the truth? Who was lying? Can the truth ever really be determined when different people see the same event in different ways?
Now it’s your turn to explore the nature of truth by creating your own short story that examines one event from various perspectives. Here are some suggestions and questions to get you started!
Character
Briefly develop a main character and supporting characters. What do they look like? How old are they? Where do they live? Who do they live with? What are their interests? What do they do for a living? Ask yourself as many questions as possible about each character and create a kind of dossier.
Motivation
What motivates the characters in your story to tell their version of the core event? What reasons might they have for being honest, bending the truth, telling only the partial truth, or completely lying? What about each of the witnesses might affect his or her recollection of the event?
Point of View
Though stories can be told from various points of view (first person, third person, omniscient), for the purposes of this exercise, let’s use shifting points of view. That will allow you to enter the mind of each of your characters and show the event from their perspectives.
Catalyst Event
This is the action or event that will set your story in motion. Choose something that your main character and supporting characters will experience or witness (or claim they’ve witnessed). The event could be a crime, an act of kindness, or anything else that has dramatic impact. Only you, as the writer, will know the truth of what happened, even if none of the characters in your story ever reveals it.
Plot
The plot includes the specific chain of events that the author uses to build a story. It’s planned, logical, and gives the story a beginning (introducing the characters and setting), middle (where events become complicated and the conflict is revealed), and end (featuring a climax that includes a resolution of the conflict).
Conflict
Conflict is essential to the drama and in forming the plot. It can be thought of as a problem that the main characters have to work toward resolving. Conflict is certainly not limited to characters arguing with each other, though that could be one aspect of the story. In a broader sense, the conflict is some kind of obstacle the main character or characters experience which they must overcome as part of the resolution of the story.
Theme
This is what your story is really about. It can be thought of as the controlling idea, or message, of the story, conveying meaning and insight about the subject chosen by the writer. For the purpose of this exercise, stick to the theme of truth using Avi’s story as your inspiration.
Setting
Where will your story take place? You may also want to consider the time of year, social conditions, and the overall mood and atmosphere of the setting. Try to think of ways that the setting is important to the story. In what ways does it contribute to character perceptions of the catalyst event?
Now that you have the basic elements of the story, you’re ready to begin writing! The story can be as long or as short as you want it to be, and should resolve in a satisfying way, even if readers don’t ultimately discover the real “truth” of what happened and must draw their own conclusions about what took place.
As the story develops, try to figure out your own ideas about the nature of truth. What is the relationship between facts and truth? Do separate facts, even if they’re all true, combine to present a complete picture of things? Can you think of any ways in which knowing all the facts would still not be adequate for understanding the truth about something? How can you incorporate some of these ideas into your narrative?
Remember to keep an open mind and a ready pen. Don’t be too concerned with knowing every little detail about the event, the characters, and the character motivations before you start to write. Much of the fun in writing is discovering things as you go!
A Sneak Peek at Something Upstairs
Avi spins a chilling tale of ghostly revenge in this spooky story about a young boy who discovers a haunted spirit in the closet of his bedroom. Take a look!
A white glow, almost shiny, and brightest on the floor, filled the windowless space. And what Kenny saw — or thought he saw — were two hands, then two arms, reaching up from the stain, pushing away a box of his mother’s old books that was sitting on it. These hands and arms seemed to be not flesh and blood but sculptured, glowing smoke. It was as if, from under that box, a body was struggling to be free.
Astonished, Kenny stood staring, telling himself that what he was seeing was not real. A dream perhaps. Some kind of fancy. But no, not real.
Bit by bit, the arms edged the box off the stain. It seemed like hard work. Their muscles bulged with effort. Sometimes, as if tired, the arms would seem to rest. Then the hands with their small but perfect fingers would curl around the box’s edge flexing out apparent pain.
It took an hour for the carton to be pushed away. Kenny watched it all. When the job was done the hands reached from the floor, held onto the box, and … pulled.
A head rose from the stain. Then came a neck. Then shoulders. The rest of the body. Soon the whole thing stood upon the floor — still and waiting. A soft, pale, pulsing glow radiated from its body, a glow which formed a vague boundary between air and mass, in equal parts nothing and something.
Except it was clearly not a thing. It was a shape like a human being.
The figure had no shoes. But Kenny recollects seeing trousers and a shirt, not tucked in, whose frayed sleeves reached midway between elbows and wrists. A stain was spread upon the back of the shirt.
The more Kenny looked, the more certain he was that this was a boy.
As Kenny watched, the boy approached the far wall, where he began to feel about its surface, as if he were in search of something, as if he were looking for a way out.
He tried the second wall. The third.
Kenny fumbled for the flashlight switch and turned it on, aiming it right at the form. The light went through him. He cast no shadow.
Just then Kenny saw, with a mixture of thrill and horror, that the boy was about to move toward the door wall. They would come face to face.
The figure turned. Their eyes met. Unexpectedly, the boy’s hand reached toward Kenny. Taken completely off guard, Kenny reacted defensively, lifting his shoe to protect himself. The boy shrank back as if expecting a blow. And the next second he vanished, leaving Kenny to stare into the empty room.
It was as if the boy feared him.
Excerpt copyright © 1988 by Avi
ALSO BY AVI
The Barn
; Beyond the Western Sea, Book 1: Escape from Home
Beyond the Western Sea, Book 2: Into the Storm
City of Light, City of Dark
The Man Who Was Poe
Midnight Magic
Murder at Midnight
Perloo the Bold
Romeo and Juliet, Together (and Alive!) At Last
Something Upstairs
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
Who Was That Masked Man, Anyway?
Copyright © 1991 by Avi. Preface copyright © 2003 by Avi.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Note: The text of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is reprinted in at least three current encyclopedic sources with slight variations in capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. The version used in this book is taken from The Annals of America.
This book was originally published in hardcover by Orchard Books in 1991.
This edition first printing, January 2010
Cover design by Steve Scott
e-ISBN 978-0-545-92262-3
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