SuitabookStop the presses!
Rachel Wise
- Reading
- Try the opening together first: Sam’s enthusiasm and direct asides establish a distinctive voice. Then let the reader continue independently or aloud, checking in if the friendship disagreement or crush becomes a focus.
- Themes
- Print, environmental choices and friendship: Sam welcomes her school’s plan to go green until she learns a proposal is to publish the newspaper online, a change supported by her best friend. The disagreement frames competing preferences—saving resources and valuing printed news—without establishing that either character’s position is the story’s answer.
- Sam’s first-person voice: Sam narrates directly to the reader, digressing about her love of paper and adding playful asides about school, family and her crush. The opening builds character through Sam’s lively observations and comic exaggeration rather than presenting the paper issue as detached information.
- Worth knowing
- Sam is upset by her friend’s position, and the opening mentions insomnia and worry about her crush.