NOTHINGBUT THE

TRUTHA Documentary Novel

AVISCHOLASTIC INC.

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NOTHINGBUT THE

TRUTHA Documentary Novel

This novel 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, 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.

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received

any payment for this “stripped book.”

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

This book was originally published in hardcover by Orchard Books in 1991.

ISBN: 978-0-545-17415-2

Copyright © 1991 by Avi. Preface copyright © 2003 by Avi. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, AFTER WORDS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. ORCHARD BOOKS and design are registered trademarks of Watts Publishing Group, Ltd.,

used under license.

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Printed in the U.S.A. 40

This edition first printing, January 2010

For Betty Miles

ALSO BY AVI

Midnight Magic

Murder at Midnight

Perloo the Bold

Something Upstairs

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

For Betty Miles

PREFACE

When Nothing But the Truth was fi rst published, I had trouble getting a reaction from the people it was written for: kids. Teachers were taking the book and passing it around among themselves, insisting that their principals, assistant principals, and superinten-dents read it. Moreover, wherever I traveled, teachers would take me aside and say something like, “I know this book is about what happened in my school. Who was it who told you about what happened?” A principal once asked me if someone sent me his memos. A teacher from a school named Harrison High handed me a sheet of school stationery. The school’s logo was the lamp of learning that appears in the book. It got so that when I spoke to groups of teach-ers about the book, I took to asking, “Has anyone NOT heard of such an incident happening in your schools?” No one ever raised a hand. It appears that the incident in the book—perhaps not so extreme—is rather common in schools across the country. And yet, these kinds of things remain somewhat secret—from the kids who go to the school.

How did I—someone who has never taught in a school—come to know about this kind of thing? First of all, our nation’s schools are wonderfully open, in the democratic sense of the word. If anything in our nation is of the people, and for the people, it is our schools. Anyone who is an engaged parent knows a great deal about schools. There is very little one can’t learn about them by looking, asking, and watching—all to our credit. But there is another way I’ve learned about schools. As a writer of books for young people I’ve been visiting schools for more than thirty years. When I am in schools I’ll visit any number of classes. Even so, there are times when I’m off duty. Where am I sent between classes? To the “teachers’ lounge.” The lounge is one of the few schoolrooms that is truly off-limits for most students. It’s here that teachers fi nd time for a moment of relaxation, a fl ash of quiet, or an exchange with another teacher about what might be going on in the building that day. And there I sit, listening to it all. It’s wonderful how much you can learn by just being quiet and listening. Sometimes you even learn the truth—or what seems to be the truth.

AviSeptember 2002