“Adam Canfield of the Slash,” by Michael Winerip (Candlewick Press, 326 pages, $15.99)
This lively novel will appeal to elementary and middle-school readers who aspire to be reporters. Upperclassman Adam Canfield is the jaded star reporter of the school newspaper, The Slash, an unfortunate and vaguely menacing name that alludes to the slash linking the levels of the Harris Elementary/Middle School.
An enterprising third-grader, Phoebe, threatens Adam’s silverback status. A natural writer and instinctive reporter, she writes features and exposés that threaten Adam’s front-page niche. Phoebe’s initially unpromising feature on the school janitor inadvertently casts light on shady dealings involving the school principal. Even Adam is forced to acknowledge Phoebe’s talent as he reluctantly becomes a partner in the investigation.
A subplot about Adam’s overscheduled life goes nowhere, but the shortcomings of this first novel are more than mitigated by Winerip’s convincing argument that even a school newspaper can influence substantial change. Ages 9 and up.
“The Whispering Road,” by Livi Michael (Putnam’s, 326 pages, $17.99)
Joe and his sister, Annie, mistrust “people in houses,” especially the loathsome adults in the workhouses and the vicious farming couple who take in Joe and Annie for cheap labor.
Joe tells the story of their escape from Old Bert and his family; their tutelage under the pragmatic wanderer, Travis, and the peculiar Dogwoman; and a series of extraordinary characters who mostly prove Joe’s suspicion of “people in houses.”
“The Whispering Road” is elegantly written and bursting with eccentric stories rooted in enough history to keep readers guessing which elements are fiction. One character is Abel Heywood, the radical publisher whose 1828 paper “The Poor Man’s Guardian” propelled him into a distinguished political career. Joe and Annie were inspired by author Michael’s research on the deaths of abused workhouse children. Ages 12 and up.
“I Am the Messenger,” by Markus Zusak (Knopf, 357 pages, $16.95)
In this enigmatic novel, a disaffected Australian cab driver named Ed inadvertently finds himself assigned to play hero to a motley assortment of people even worse off than he is.
Anonymous cryptic notes written on playing cards direct him to addresses where he finds, variously, a rape victim, an impoverished single mother, combative brothers, the secret behind a friend’s parsimony and more.
The messages provoke Ed into making the world a better place, though he is brought up short when the final directive issued is for himself. This is an engaging story that should appeal even to cynical adolescent readers. Ages 12 and up.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
