Adam Canfield of the Slash Series

Raising money to resurrect the banned school paper brings Adam in contact with some quirky characters in this sharp, funny novel starring the ace middle-grade reporter.

A “dirty” school election, suspicious state test scores — Adam Canfield and his star reporters are chasing some red-hot leads. There’s only one glitch: the school board has shut down THE SLASH for exposing the town’s most powerful family, and now the staff has to find a way to publish it themselves. Enter the Ameche brothers: two goofy kid entrepreneurs with a knack for refurbishing junk — and a talent for selling ads — but a shaky command of journalistic ethics. What’s worse, Adam hasn’t a clue why his coeditor, Jennifer, is suddenly acting weird. . . . With kid-friendly humor and a touch of budding romance, this adventure revisits a winning cast of characters — and the excitement that comes from uncovering a really great story.

“Lots of laugh-out-loud humor, perfectly satirizing state tests, overzealous parents, and kids who are in danger of being enriched to death.” — School and Library Journal

For overprogrammed middle-grader Adam Canfield, waking up to a snow day is a dream come true — a chance to sleep late, put off planning the next issue of The Slash, and make some quick cash with his shovel. But the dream turns into a nightmare when some high-school kids mug Adam for his shoveling money. Then not only does the media blast the embarrassing story, but Adam’s own co-editors plan a contest outing bullies at their school. In a second look behind the scenes at a middle school newspaper, Michael Winerip deftly blends kid-friendly humor with some provocative issues, including the subtle effects of class and racism and the thrill that comes from speaking truth to power.

“Between laughs, readers will be prompted to think — about what constitutes truth, how the media massages it, and the importance of ethics, fairness, and getting the facts right.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Adam Canfield has to be the most overprogrammed middle-school student in America. So when super-organized Jennifer coaxes him to be coeditor of their school newspaper, The Slash, he wonders if he’s made a big mistake. But when a third-grader’s article leads to a big scoop, Adam and his fellow junior journalists rise to the challenge of receiving their principal’s wrath to uncover some scandalous secrets. From a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and New York Times columnist comes a funny, inspiring debut that sneaks in some lessons on personal integrity — and captures the rush that’s connected to the breaking of a really great story.