Nothing but the Truth: A Documentary Novel was published by Orchard Books in 1991 and received a Newbery Honor in 1992. Philip Malloy, a ninth-grader, hums along to the national anthem during homeroom — a minor disruption that his teacher, Margaret Narwin, asks him to stop. Philip refuses, is suspended, and the incident escalates through school administration, local media, and eventually national news into a free-speech controversy that destroys both Philip’s and Narwin’s reputations.
The novel’s formal innovation was its documentary structure: the entire story is told through memos, letters, diary entries, phone transcripts, news reports, and official documents. There is no narrator, no authorial commentary, and no single version of events that is privileged as “the truth.” The reader must piece together what actually happened from contradictory accounts — and discovers that no one in the story is lying, exactly, but everyone is telling a version of the truth shaped by their own perspective and interests.
Collecting Nothing but the Truth
First edition (Orchard Books, New York, 1991): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- Fine in dust jacket: $30–$75
- Very good: $10–$30
Projected values (2026–2036): Strong appreciation. A Newbery Honor title with enduring classroom relevance.
The Documentary Novel
Nothing but the Truth is told entirely through documents: memos, letters, diary entries, phone transcripts, and newspaper articles. There is no conventional narration. When ninth-grader Philip Malloy hums along to the national anthem in class and is suspended for it, the incident escalates through institutional channels, media distortion, and political opportunism until the “truth” is unrecognisable. Avi forces readers to assemble the facts from contradictory accounts and discover that everyone involved is both right and wrong.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Nothing but the Truth used in schools? Extensively. The novel is a staple of middle-school English curricula because its documentary format teaches critical reading — students must evaluate competing accounts and recognise how institutional pressure, media framing, and personal bias distort truth.