A Review by Maria

Suspense - When the principal,Dr.Barnes reads the newspaper Mr.Larson gets called in and asked about his involenment in The Landry News. Somehow copies of  what was  to be just a classroom newspaper, got out into the rest of the school. Dr. Barnes demanded that Mr. Larson has to take full responsibility for this newspaper and whatever is printed in it. One mistake would Mr. Larson into the frying pan! 
 
Character Development - Cara Landry is the main charater.  She is a bright young girl with opinions about what she could write about in her newspaper. No matter how much it hurt someone she wanted to tell the truth in her newspaper. After the fallout with Mr. Larson, Cara began to change her feelings about telling the truth without Mercy.  She starts to show a kinder side. Cara begins to let other people write their stories in the newspapers so the newspapers are not all about her. 
 
Important Lessons - A person has to tell the truth. Telling the truth can sometimes make people angry.   It all depends on the thought behind the person- the person’s heart. A mean- hearted person tries to tell the truth in a way that helps people understand things better. A good- hearted person tries to tell the truth in a way that helps people do things better. A good-hearted person tells the same as a mean-hearted person, but he tells the story in a different way because it’s for a different reason.
 
Imagination - The imagination was ok because as you know this novel took place in a school and schools are not so exciting. The pictures in this novel explain what the novel is really about. He was very good at describing things and you got a picture in your mind of what he wrote about a certain object. Settings in the novel are the same places all the time the school rooms and Cara’s house.

 
Difficulty -This novel wasn’t very hard at all. The vocabulary was just right for me.
There were hardly any difficulties! 
 
Overall Recommendation  - I would recommend this book to any grade 5 student.
 
Author Report
Andrew Clements wrote The Landry news because he says he loves kids and because he once taught 5th grade as well as other grades. He said he loved the moments when he would read a story with a class, and everyone would be involved in the plot and immersed in the charater’s adventure.

In The Landry News, he describes how the teacher, Mr. Larson had lost his ability to be inventive and how Cara’s newspaper challenged Mr. Larson to be creative again. He thinks that situations in his books like The Landry News are unusual but they’re still believable, somehow, because every kid and every teacher understands that there is an edge. He said that one of the most enjoyable things about teaching is that kind of edge.There are all these subtle little relationships that you have with so many kids during the day.