Selected Book
Adam Canfield of the Slash
- Paperback
- Author: Michael Winerip
- Publisher: Candlewick
- Release Date: April 2007
- Reading Level: Ages 9-12
- ISBN-10: 0763627941
- ISBN-13: 9780763627942
- List Price: $6.99
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
Summary"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) |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Lazy Writing
Rating: 
Adam Canfield is the student co-editor of his Elementary/Middle School newspaper, The Slash. In an effort to continue The Slash's tradition of great and responsible journalism, Adam and his friend Jennifer begin to uncover a scandal that will rock the school and the town.
I was torn the entire time I spent reading this book.
On one hand, I was turning pages quickly to see how Adam and Jennifer discovered/uncovered the problems. I couldn't wait to see how they'd solve their problems. As a middle school teacher, this book (at times) made me wish my school had a student paper, and I think Adam and Jennifer will steer a ton of kids interests towards journalism.
On the other hand - where do I begin? I thought the characters and situations presented in this book were completely unrealistic. Adam and Jennifer appeared to me to be mere charactatures of talented middle school students. They acted far too adult and experienced to be even remotely believable - which led me to believe that this must be some sort of heightened comedy, but I never was able to decide if that was the tone of the book or not. There is no journalism teacher or staff advisor for the newspaper, so where do these kids get the ability to run a newspaper? Where did they learn about journalistic ethics? Where did they learn to interview, to write headlines, to format a paper?
I felt the characterization was lazy. Instead of creating "real" characters, the author gave us ridiculous stereotypes - the all-knowing janitor, the precocious little brainiac, the students who are smarter than all the adults, the wise old teacher, the adult friend who provides guidance, and those were the more believable ones. I really found the angry vindictive principal, the bumbling county board members, and the ridiculous zoning comittee supervisor to be insulting to the intelligence of the intended readers. Fifth and sixth graders aren't adults (as they're characterized in the book), but they are too intelligent to be talked down to like this - create some real characters for them to relate to.
What made this book even worse for me was the incredibly unrealistic situations that the author used. They screamed laziness to me. I won't list every single situation that bugged me, but middle school kids meeting at a local diner, third graders sneaking out of the house at night to meet older kids at an abandoned wharehouse, principals adding classes to the start and end of the school day with no question from parents, lawyers going out of their way to help kids because their impressed with the student's journalistic integrity, adults clamoring for and asking for subscriptions to middle school newspapers... Again, some of these made me wonder if this was intended to be a comedy, but I couldn't figure out the author's tone or intent.
Personally, I didn't think the book was terrible (as I said, the plot moved along and I remained interested enough to stick it out to the end), but I won't recommend it to my students. I don't see how this book has been nominated for numerous awards when there are so many other new books for this age group that are far superior. If you'd like students to read about school controversies check out the much better The Truth About Truman School or Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature.
english review
Rating:
The book was very interesting. I liked how it showed a middle school kid just like me. Adam and I are just as overworked and tired. Now back to the story it is one of my personal favorites. My favorite part in the story is when you find out about the donation. At first you get all suspenseful and excited. Then you start to think what this money is actually going to support. In the end it gets extremely suspenseful because someone may lose their job and you are guessing why.
I would recommend this book to any children who are soon to be journalists. Also this is for kids who like to solve mysteries. The book is a little bit long so if you have trouble reading you may not choose it for a book report. Also if you don't like suspenseful books this is not for you. If you don't like mystery this also is not for you. Lastly this book is also for any detectives. In all this is my favorite mystery story.
book review for english project
Rating:
The book was very interesting. I liked how it showeed a middle school kid just like me. Me and adam are just as overworked and tired. Now back to the story it is one of my personal favorites. My favorite part in the story is when you find out about the donation. At first you get all suspenful and excited. Then you start to think what is this money actually going to support. In the end it gets extremely suspensful because someone may loses their job and you are guessing why.
good story
Rating:
My son, who is an avid reader, loved this book. He is begging for anything else by this author.
The Article of a Lifetime
Rating:
Adam Canfield of the Slash, by Michael Winerip shows the true meaning of guts. In the story, Adam Canfield, the co-editor of the Slash, (the school's newspaper), has a hard time finding stories to issue in the newspaper but little does he know that there is a mammoth story waiting to be revealed right there at Harris Elementary Middle School. Mrs. Marris, the school principal, takes money that was supposed to be donated to the school, and uses it to purchase gold plumbing in her bunker lavatory. Adam jumps all over the story but takes an immense risk that his permanent record will be scared for ever if he publishes the story in the paper. Adam has a poised sidekick named Jennifer who is an amazing student, and also extraordinarily intelligent. They have to put up with third grade club reporter Phoebe who won't stay out of their faces. Even though very annoying, and hyper, Phoebe has a very intoxicating pen, and a very keen sense of sniffing out front page stories. After a sequence of events happen Adam, Jennifer, and Phoebe realize the theme of this book, which is that if you work hard, and put a bunch of meaning into something, than it will be all worth it in the long shot.
This realistic fiction story seems like a nerdy book about a school newspaper but it's not. The Slash is a very fascinating newspaper that all of you would love to read. One of the stories is about a wooden cow that was stolen, and then about a year later some teenagers returned it! The character Adam is a very creative kid who wants to do only good for the world, but there is one thing that just makes him go crazy. His huge schedule. Adam has to balance school, the Slash, and his extracurricular activities. Jennifer is an extremely smart student, and knows a lot about pleasing people. Phoebe is just an annoying third grader who is exceptionally good at being a newspaper journalist. This story is comical at the right times, and gripping at others. I think that this story keeps you on your toes and compels you to keep reading!
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