A Level Playing Field (3) (Dear Knowitall),Used

Product Description A middleschool star reporter has a tough time taking a stance on a story when her cowriter is also her crush.Samantha really enjoys writing for her school newspaper, particularly when shes assigned to write with Michael Lawrence, who happens to also be her crush. Shes thrilled to work with himbut less thrilled to realize they disagree on how the article should be written. The topic is whether students should pay for extracurricular activities, such as sports, and Samantha thinks its a good idea. After all, baseball isnt as important as math or language arts, she argues. But try telling that to the star pitcher on the schools baseball team! Maybe Samanthas headline should be Trouble in the Newsroom!Alls not fair in love and journalism in this newsworthy addition to a tweensavvy series. About the Author Rachel Wiseloves to give advice. When shes not editing or writing childrens books, which she does fulltime at a publisher in New York, shes reading advice columns in newspapers, magazines, and blogsand is always sure her advice would be better! Her dream is to someday have her own talk show, where she could share her wisdom with millions of people at once, but for now shes happy to dole out advice in small portions in Dear KnowItAll books. Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. A Level playing Field Chapter 1MARTONE AND LAWRENCE: TOGETHER AGAIN! Michael Lawrence is the bestlooking boy at Cherry Valley Middle School, and he loves me. Ha! That got your attention, right? Its whats called a great lead in a news article. The first line in any article is the lead, and its meant to capture the readers attention right from the start. I love writing leads almost as much as I love writing headlines. I write headlines in my mind all day, just kind of narrating the action of my life. Headlines are short and snappy and fun to write, but a lead has to really draw you in and make you want to read the entire story. Unfortunately, this lead is not true. Michael Lawrence does not love me. Or I dont think he does, anyway. But now that I have your attention, let me flesh out the who, what, when, where, and why of my news story, just as my teachers at journalism camp taught me. My name is Samantha Martone. I am a student at Cherry Valley Middle School, where I write for our school newspaper, the Cherry Valley Voice. I think Im a pretty normal middle school kid. My best friend since kindergarten is Hailey Jones. My older sister, Allie, goes to high school and is perfect, which is a pain. I live with her and my mom on Buttermilk Lane. I have a really big secret. The secret is, I am Dear KnowItAll! Shh! Dont tell anyone! I guess I should explain who Dear KnowItAll is. Dear KnowItAll writes the advice column in the Cherry Valley Voice. Every September, Mr. Trigg, the newspapers advisor, picks a different person to write the column for the year. And this year he picked me! The only hitch is, you cant tell anyone its you if youre picked. You have to stay anonymous. Well, actually, theres one other hitch. Writing the column is really hard. Oh, and one more major hitch: so is picking which letter youre going to answer in your column each issue. When things get really hard, I sometimes think of quitting. But honestly, writing the column is kind of interesting, and also, I really, really want to be editor in chief of the Voice next year, and quitting Dear KnowItAll would totally take me out of the running. And most of all, I really like writing a column that everyone in school reads. I mean, its really the first thing people turn to when the new issue of the Voice comes out every other week. And everyone talks about it too. See, the most gratifying thing for a journalist is to know youre writing interesting stuff that people are reading and talking about. Thats why I know in my heart Ill never really quit being Dear KnowItAll. Oh, I also write regula