Michael Winerip

When the school board shuts down the student newspaper, the Ameche Brothers, two budding entrepreneurs with a knack for refurbishing junk but a shaky command of journalistic ethics, step in to help.

Adam Canfield, the last reporter

Savindi Jinasena

I’m so glad that I was able to get over my Reading Funk after reading this book. As always I’m happy to have found a book myself and the price of it didn’t hurt either. In all honesty this book is worth more than $3.99. It’s truly one of the best Children’s books that I have read in a while.

As the synopsis suggests, Adam Canfield: The Last Reporter follows the adventures of Adam Canfield, an overprogrammed middle school reporter. This book is the 3rd installment in the Adam Canfield of the Slash series, but you honestly don’t have to read the previous two books to understand the story or the characters.

In terms of plot, I feel the main plot was to find a way to publish The Slash by themselves, however what made this book so great for me were the sub-plots. I thought they were done incredibly well and it was the reason that I kept reading and re-reading some parts of the book. While there was one subplot that I was confused about. Mainly I wasn’t sure if it was solved or not, but personally I didn’t care because this book exceeded my expectations.

I have to talk about the lovely characters, because they were just so awesome! Honestly they have to be the most entertaining middle schoolers/elementary school kids I’ve ever come across. Move over Elizabeth Wakefield and the rest of the Sixers staff! Adam Canfield and the rest of The Slash crew are the new reporters in town. Jokes aside, I loved all the characters in this book. Adam was a great character. He truly was an overprogrammed middle school kid with a sharp wit and a good sense of humor. Jennifer was a cute character and I enjoyed the chemistry between her and Adam. My favourite character though was the world’s greatest third grader reporter Phoebe. I adore Phoebe’s character. She was so entertaining and funny that you couldn’t help but love her. I’m not sure if she was an accurate portrayal of a third grader, but I could care less because she was awesome. I loved her advice column and her small moments which had me laughing out loud. Phoebe reminded me a lot of myself when I was younger because I used to be an outspoken and know-it-all child until I became quiet to the point where my parents had to force me to talk to people. The Ameche family were also great secondary characters.

What was interesting about this book was it definitely brought me back to the point that childhood has changed dramatically with technological advancements. I mean when I was 7 years old I didn’t even know what the internet or email was. While sometimes I don’t agree with so much technology use among young children Michael Winerip was able to use technology to portray the ethics that should still be applied to quality journalism and to real life of course.

For some people Adam Canfield: The Last Reporter may seem like a far-fetched story about young kids, but I beg you to put away your notions on how kids should behave and use technology and just enjoy the story because it’ll have you laughing a lot and just enjoying the witty remarks that come from a kid’s mouth.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Adam Canfield: The Last Reporter. As I said it’s one of the best children’s books that I’ve read in a while and I can’t wait to read the first two books in the series.

My Rating: 5/5

Would I recommend it? Absolutely

Adam Canfield, the last reporter

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