Adam Canfield of the Slash by Michael Winerip

Author:Michael Winerip [Winerip, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5426-9
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2005-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

Adam and Jennifer knew it would be a long, hard weekend finishing the October issue. They’d heard horror stories from past editors about getting the paper out and planned to spend every free moment at Adam’s house. He had the best computer, complete with a scanner for photos.

The Slash had three students who typed stories on their home computers, then e-mailed them to Adam. Even if they wanted to, the typists could not have worked in 306. Newsroom computers were not hooked into the Internet. Mrs. Marris had forbidden it. When Jennifer had asked about getting the room wired, Mrs. Marris gave her a big speech about how overrated the Internet was and how most kids wasted their time playing violent games or surfing adult websites. “How long do you think I’d be principal,” Mrs. Marris said to Jennifer, “if I came in some morning and one of your clever little reporters had plastered Harris with printouts of naked web babes?”

To assist them in laying out the pages, Adam’s parents had bought him Pagination Made EZ software. At the top of the first page, he programmed in the banner typeface, THE SLASH. On the same line, in a box at the right top, he typed, October Edition. On the next line, he typed, Harris Elementary/Middle School.

Then came the real work. Adam and Jennifer spent Friday night arguing about what the front page should be. Both agreed the basketball story had the hottest news, and they placed it at the top right side of page 1, with a large headline: “Your Hoop’s Coming Down!” The story carried a double byline, by both Adam and Jennifer, and was continued inside, taking up nearly two pages.

They disagreed about what story should go on the top left of page 1; Adam wanted the missing plywood cow and the hundred-dollar reward; Jennifer favored Eddie the janitor.

While Jennifer agreed that a hundred-dollar reward would create more buzz than Eddie, she felt there were other considerations. “We don’t want two stories at the top that aren’t about Harris,” she said. “We need balance.”

So they put Eddie on top and the hundred-dollar reward right below it. Jennifer wanted Phoebe’s smile contest to run under the basketball piece, but Adam said he had something else.

That afternoon on the bus ride home, he had dashed off a story about the new state test study guides. It was only fifty-seven words long and described how the guidebooks were being made available free of charge thanks to a generous grant from the Boland Foundation. Adam’s headline read simply, “Free Help!”

Jennifer was surprised. “You hate that testing stuff,” she said. “Now you’re Mr. Test Prep?”

“Trust me,” said Adam. “We’re going to need it when Marris realizes there’s no story on Miss Bloch’s gift to the school.”

Along the bottom they stripped the smile story, with the headline “Dental Contest Sugarcoated.”

They picked three photos for page 1. Two were by Front-Page Phoebe: Eddie with the two saved mourning doves and smile champion Suzy Mollar with the M&M bag stuffed over her head.

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