Nothing by Jannes Teller

Teller, J.  (2010).  Nothing.  New York:  Antheneum Books for Young Readers.  227 pages, $16.99.

How are are a class of seventh graders willing to go to prove to Pierre Anthon that everything they do and everything they have is important, is worth something, is worth the effort, and matters?

Nothing is about a group of seventh graders in Taering.  On their first day of seventh grade, Pierre Anthon decides that whatever effort they put into anything is eventually meaningless and does not matter, so nothing is worth the effort and nothing matters.  Pierre is constantly reminding them of this from the plum tree where he spends his time throwing plums at them.  At first the students try to reason with him, but he will not accept their logic, so they want to prove him wrong.  They get together in the sawmill and put together a collection of items that are important and truly matter to them.  They take turns thinking about each other and what really matters to them and having each other bring in items that they decide are truly important and matter.  Their collection starts off simple with actual items such as shoes and a bike, but as the students lose their most prized possessions, the items become far more involved and more personal (prayer mats, innocence, finger).  The students make the media and press aware of what they have collected, and they get attention for what they have done.  An American museum even offers to buy their collection, calling it a true work of art.  Pierre still insists that their collection does not matter, especially since they decided to sell it to the museum.  He insists that if the items truly mattered to them, they would not have sold the collection.  This really gets to the students, and they brutally and fatally take out their anger and frustrations on him.

When I first started reading this book, I thought it was weird, but interestingly weird, and as I continued reading it became more and more troublesome, dark, and haunting, but I could not put it down.  I found it surprising that the students were able to convince each other to give up their most prized possessions just to prove a point, and no one could talk them out of choosing a different object to add to the collection.  I was very shocked when they started having each other give up things that they really shouldn't (innocence and fingers?!).  What was also surprising was they way they justified their choices.  "Are you saying that his finger doesn't matter?"  After saying that, it was as though they had been defeated and it was hard for them to argue that what matters to someone is no less important than what matters to someone else and no one was able or willing to speak against the group about what they were doing.  This was horrifying.  I think the students got caught up in trying to "one-up" each other to sacrifice what was important to them, so they weren't really thinking logically.  I think the title is appropriate because in a way they ended up with nothing to show for what they did.

This book won honor for the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature.  It is also an honor book for the Batchelder Award, which is an award for an outstanding book in a language other than English.  It was translated by Martin Aitken.  Nothing is Teller's first Young Adult novel, and it is the winner of the Best Children's Book Prize from the Danish Cultural Ministry and the Le Prix Libbylit for the best children's novel in the French-speaking world.  Other books by Jannes Teller include Odin's Island, The Trampling Cat, and Come.  Visit Jannes Teller at her website at http://www.janneteller.dk/?English.

Jannes Teller (author of Nothing)