Saviors of The Bugle
 Barbara Elmore
 (Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
 2003 Mud Pie Press
 ISBN: 097149410X

How can Wendy prevent her hometown newspaper from closing?

Newspapers are endangered unless we can get children to see them for what they are: inexpensive, fun vehicles for learning about people, hometown news & faraway places. With so many other flashy distractions, children may someday see newspapers only in museums.

Wendy Wright is a chubby middle-schooler who avidly consumes her twice-weekly local newspaper against her mother's better judgement. Wendy enjoys all parts of The Bugle, & makes sure never to miss her favorite comic strip. She has a special interest in The Bugle because that's where her older sister's stories used to be published.

Then The Bugle's headlines wakes Wendy up one day -- Moffat Corner's only newspaper is in trouble -- one of its major advertisers, in a move to control what The Bugle writes about, has stopped buying space. Unless the editor finds a buyer or more advertisers, The Bugle is going to become as extinct as dinosaurs.

Moffat Corner, like every small American town, has fallen on hard times -- a promised shopping mall was built in another town 30 miles away. There's someone in Moffat Corner's city council who is determined to thwart any new businesses. The environmentally friendly plastics factory, which would employ 100 workers, is stalled in the application phase.

That's when Wendy goes into action. Almost before she knows what she's doing she's bicycled to The Bugle's office. With the help of the overworked & underpaid Tina, the receptionist & dogsbody, Wendy beards the growly & grumpy Editor, Luella Cathcart, in her den, & the strangest things begin to happen.

In Wendy's eagerness to see The Bugle survive, she ropes in her best friends, Libby & Riley, & together they set off to interview the new skateboard & bicycle business for advertising; then they are using the telephone in the beauty salon & get a surprise agreement for more advertising.

Then the Editor sends them off to cover a fashion show which turns into a hilarious farce when a dog dashes off with a lady's posh hat.

Meanwhile, on the home front, things are heating up. Wendy's parents are appalled that she's been lying about what she's doing & insist she make amends with Riley's & Libby's parents, with unexpected results.

Then Wendy's class bully weighs in. The grandson of one of the town's founders whose father owns the hardware store (& much of the undeveloped land in & around Moffat Corner), Burnam Horton, with his cohort of sniveling boys, begins making the threesome's lives difficult.

Saviors of The Bugle is a fast & furious read with tons of adventures & some very sound ideas about truth & honor, volunteering & economics, bullying & friendship.

A good, interesting read. Definitely recommended!

More from Barbara Elmore:
Crookwood
Breathing Room
(09/21/03)

Rebecca