The Landry News

“‘That is my open classroom at work! Here’s living proof. I have not been involved one bit, and that quiet new girl—Laura…or Tara? Or…well…that little Landry girl—she has gone right ahead and made her own newspaper! And look! Just look! All the other kids are getting involved in the learning!’ Mr. Larson kept talking to himself, now imagining that he was defending himself in front of the whole school board. ‘Go right ahead. You’re the principal, Dr. Barnes. You can put all the letters you want into my file, Dr. Barnes. But here’s proof, right here! I do know what I’m doing, and I’m the teacher in my classroom, not you!’”

These lines are part of Mr. Larson’s inner monologue, and they are a justification for his continued lack of involvement in the classroom. Mr. Larson has noticed Cara put up her first issue of The Landry News and marvels at the other children taking an interest in the newspaper. He points to The Landry News as proof that learning is happening with no input from him. The lines here are full of sarcasm and exclamation points that give the words emotional emphasis. His reference to defending himself before the school board foreshadows the hearing in the book’s final chapter, and the tone of his inner speech here highlights how he changes between now and the end of the book. Later, when Mr. Larson defends himself in front of the board, he is completely serious and quick to admit his past problems as a teacher, something he doesn’t come close to admitting here.

“You’re LeeAnn Ennis. Ellen Hatcher is your best friend, you like Deke Deopolis, your sister is a cheerleader at the high school, and your mom is secretary of the Denton School PTA. Math is your favorite subject, you love cats, and you went to the big sleepover party at Betsy Lowenstein’s house last weekend.”

These lines are Cara’s response to the girl who speaks to her on the bus for the first time. Clements uses this exchange to highlight several things about Cara’s personality. First, the lines show her skill at finding information. Cara not only knows who the girl is, she knows key details about the girl’s life, family, and interests—things Cara has learned from being observant and doing her research. Second, the matter-of-fact way Cara delivers this information displays her confidence, both in her skills and in her belief she’s justified in knowing details about other people. Cara is at the beginning of her character arc here and has not yet learned how to temper her display of facts out of sensitivity to other people. This passage provides comic effect through dramatic irony, as the reader is invited to perceive how strange Cara’s frank response will seem to her hearers.

“Karl was thunderstruck, and he turned and stumbled back to where his own family had set up their picnic on the beach. This big, hairy guy looked at his Mrs. Spellman and said, ‘Hey Mabel.’ At that moment, Karl Larson realized that the Mrs. Spellman he knew at school was mostly a fictional character, partly created by him, and partly created by Mrs. Spellman herself. The students and…and Mabel created Mrs. Spellman together, in order to do the job—the job of schooling.”

This passage from Mr. Larson’s past reflects how there are different aspects to people, as well as how our worldview shifts when we learn new information. Mr. Larson remembers one of his own schoolteachers. Mr. Larson’s observation here that his teacher was a fictional character is a metaphor for the parts of ourselves we choose to show other people. His teacher became a version of herself when she taught because it was the version her students needed.

“Mr. Larson tried to remember when he had stopped being a good teacher. But it wasn’t like there was one particular moment you could point to. Teachers don’t burn out all at once. It happens a little at a time, like the weariness that can overtake a person walking up a steep hill—you begin to get tired and you slow down, and then you feel like you just have to stop and sit and rest.”

This passage from Mr. Larson’s thoughts comes as he considers what Cara wrote about him in her editorial. Mr. Larson starts to face the truth and accept that nothing Cara wrote about him was false. He has worked through his objections and justifications, finally settling on burnout and the impact it’s had on his career. His description of burnout here reflects how his transition from good to poor teacher was a process. Clements uses the hill metaphor for readers, especially young adults, who are unfamiliar with burnout or have never felt its effects. This allows readers to understand that Mr. Larson didn’t decide to stop putting in effort—rather it came upon him slowly in response to the obstacles he faced. This passage is an important part of Mr. Larson’s backstory and encourages empathy for his character.

“It’s an editorial, Mother, so it’s allowed to have opinions in it. And all the opinions are based on facts. I didn’t make any of that up. I never have made anything up. I just report the facts. You are the one who taught me to always tell the truth, remember? Well, I’m just telling the truth here.”

These lines serve to show the reader that Cara, like Mr. Larson, is making excuses to justify her actions and convince herself what she’s doing is right. Cara wants to believe there is nothing wrong with her editorial style because she’s only telling the facts, and she concludes that editorials are allowed to have opinions to bolster the idea that she’s not in the wrong. Cara also twists her argument to make it sound like her mother should approve, citing how her mother always told her to tell the truth. These lines show Cara’s confidence in her ability to craft compelling arguments, even if her sarcasm suggests she doesn’t completely believe what she’s saying.

“I want to say I’m sorry for the part of The Landry News that was about you. Maybe I should not have surprised you by just sticking it up on the wall like that for everyone else to read. It’s just that I like making newspapers. I try to print only what’s true, but I guess sometimes I don’t think enough about how that can make people feel.

I mean, I still think that what I said was pretty true, but I didn’t mean to make you mad like that.”

These lines come from the apology letter Cara writes to Mr. Larson for her editorial in The Landry News. This is one of the first places Cara is honest with herself, and it lays the groundwork for the rest of her character transformation. In particular, this has to do with Cara acknowledging her own feelings, and to those of others. She admits here that she likes collecting facts, writing articles, and putting together newspapers because these are things she’s good at and that she can feel proud of. She is also starting to consider the different ways truth can be told here—either as a tool for good or harm.

“And with that, Mr. Larson sat down in his chair and opened up his paper. With his eyes on the sports page, he reached for his thermos, and poured some of Friday’s cold coffee into a cup. He wasn’t planning on drinking any of it, but he wanted things to look and feel normal again.”

This passage comes the Monday after the edition of The Landry News with Mr. Larson’s editorial. Mr. Larson has just actively taught his class for the first time in years and this passage is a semi-humorous description of the result on him. It shows that he is surprised and uncomfortable about his sudden engagement and is seeking to minimize it. Instead of remaining accessible to the students as they work on the project, he barricades himself behind his newspaper, sending the message that he’s no longer teaching and isn’t involved in what the kids are doing. His desire for things to look normal reflects that he feels conflicted about making a change, especially a public change which will be remarked upon. This passage foreshadows his character arc—that he will become the teacher his students need by the end of the book.

“Cara hesitated. She wasn’t expecting this. The Landry News was her newspaper, something she did all by herself.

Still, this offer was something to think about. If she kept on making just one copy by hand, yes, she could keep total control of it. But with only one copy, not many kids would ever get to read the News. And as Mr. Larson had proved, making only one copy means that it only takes one angry reader to shut off the whole circulation instantly.”

Here, Joey has just offered to help Cara produce subsequent issues of The Landry News by using the computer so they can create multiple copies and disseminate them more widely across the school. Cara’s hesitation reveals her loner nature and desire for control. She began The Landry News at a time when she felt like she didn’t have control over anything in her life, and ever since, the paper has helped her feel in charge. Her decision to accept Joey’s help shows she’s ready to move on and that she has truly gotten over her parents’ separation because she no longer needs complete control over the paper to feel comfortable. However, she hides behind the idea that the paper can increase in circulation, showing there is part of her that clings to the illusion of control.

“Katherine Steinert had always reminded Mr. Larson of a schnauzer—the kind of small dog that runs around and around in circles, yipping and jumping up and chasing its tail. Her close-cropped, gray-and-white curly hair added to this impression. Ms. Steinert talked so fast that she often seemed to be panting. Mr. Larson admired her energy and enthusiasm, but talking with her always made him feel tired.”

Katherine Steinert is the school librarian, and she only appears in Chapter 9. The librarian is likely based on a 1990s comic stereotype of the school librarian as a perky, energetic woman. Mr. Larson’s description of the librarian offers a foil to his more serious and toned-down persona and provides comedy because their approaches are so different. Because Clements portrays Ms. Steinert through Mr. Larson’s eyes, the description of the librarian is a description of Mr. Larson’s feelings, encapsulating his good nature but also his burnout and apathy.

“A minute later, Joey handed Cara the sheets, still warm from the printer. Holding the actual pieces of paper, seeing the name large and clear across the top, Cara stopped worrying. She didn’t understand all the computer stuff—not yet—but she understood paper. In the end it was just going to be a piece of paper—paper and ink and ideas.”

Cara thinks this after seeing the printouts of the new version of The Landry News for the first time, and these lines represent how the fundamental nature of something doesn’t change just because aspects of it do. Seeing the printouts makes it real for her. She can see what the final product will look like and hold a mockup in her hands, which makes it clear the newspaper itself hasn’t changed—it’s just being produced in a new way. The last line solidifies how Cara can recognize her newspaper, even if it looks different, because it is still the key concept she originated.

“A mean-hearted newspaper tries to find out things that are bad, and then tries to tell the truth in a way that will hurt others. Newspapers can get famous that way, but they don’t do much good—for anybody.

A good-hearted newspaper tries to tell the truth in a way that helps people understand things better. A good-hearted newspaper can tell the same story as a mean-hearted paper, but it tells the story in a different way because it’s for a different reason.”

These lines come from the editorial of the second edition of The Landry News. The newspaper has undergone many changes—including digital production, getting new sections, and increasing its staff—and to go along with this, Cara gives it a new mission: to tell the truth in a positive way that helps readers learn and understand. The past versions of The Landry News had a mean heart because Cara was using the paper to be unkind. The Landry News itself is only as good or bad as the minds behind it, and Cara’s change of heart here shows that she’s ready and willing to move forward and do better by her paper and its readers, linking her character arc to The Ethics of Journalism and how those ethics pertain to more than just news.

“But when Dr. Barnes read the editorial, his eyes narrowed, and his heartbeat quickened. A scowl formed on his broad, fleshy face, and his nostrils flared and quivered. He reached for a red pen, took off the cap, and starting over, he read through the entire paper again, looking for a problem, any problem. But when he was done, he had only circled one item on the whole page. It was in the editorial. He had drawn a heavy red circle around one name: Mr. Larson.”

Here, Dr. Barnes has just read the second edition of The Landry News. He is impressed until he sees Mr. Larson mentioned in a positive light, at which point he becomes angry. Dr. Barnes lets his personal opinion of Mr. Larson get in the way of acknowledging how good the newspaper is, which represents the danger of personal bias. Dr. Barnes refuses to acknowledge that Mr. Larson could at all be beneficial to something so well put together, and since he is unable to shift his own thinking, he blames the paper and the editorial, showing how he is too focused to accept change.

“Sitting up suddenly, Dr. Barnes reached for his phone. He punched Mrs. Cormier’s extension. He could hear her bustling around behind him out in the main office area, no doubt getting ready to leave. He could have swiveled his chair around and talked to her, but he enjoyed using the phone. It seemed more official.”

This passage offers insight into Dr. Barnes’s character and shows how inconsiderate he is of other people. Though he is within talking distance of his secretary, he chooses to call her on the phone because it makes him feel important. This may be extended to his opinion of Mr. Larson and suggests that Dr. Barnes doesn’t like the other man because he really sees how valuable a teacher Mr. Larson could be and refuses to acknowledge this because it would mean admitting someone is more worthwhile than himself.

“The negative column filled up fastest with words like stupid, disgraceful, foolish, laughable, wasteful, outraged, idiotic, scandalous, uninformed, half-baked, shamefully.

Positive words and phrases included generously, public-spirited, wise, beneficial, commendable, carefully researched, useful, honorable, good.

Neutral words or phrases were a lot harder to find. In fact, the kids only found five: apparently, clearly, not certain, understandably, presumably.”

These lists of words come from the discussion about the type of words used in editorials. As is established, positive and negative words are seen more frequently than neutral ones and negative words appear most often. This reflects Cara’s journey with The Landry News. When she first started producing the paper, she used more negative words, which, based on the list here, aligns with professional papers. Though Cara was purposefully being cruel, she was practicing a common trope of editorial reporting. With the paper’s shift toward being a kinder newspaper, it actively resists this negative trend, which shows how the kids are working toward a brighter future for their newspaper and community.

“‘You know, it’s a funny thing about paper,’ said Mr. Larson. ‘My wife and I once flew to New York City for a long weekend, and after we flew back to Chicago on Sunday night, we walked to our car, drove home, went inside, and then I sat down and put my feet up. And you know what? There was a piece of paper—an advertisement for a New York restaurant—stuck right onto the bottom of my shoe. Paper has a way of getting around.’”

Mr. Larson says this to Dr. Barnes after the principal argues that The Landry News is a school newspaper—not a classroom newspaper—because copies were found all around the building. Mr. Larson’s argument shows his critical-thinking skills, as well as his ability to think on his feet and tailor arguments to his purposes. The story about the flier bolsters his point that the location of the physical newspaper doesn’t change how the newspaper is defined—a classroom newspaper for Room 145. The story is also a metaphor for the spread of information. Information moves in unpredictable ways and travels great distances, often winding up far from its source. The discussion between the two men is also about the nature of information, power, and control: Dr Barnes consistently wishes to maintain control and is made uneasy by the subversive, expressive power of a student newspaper.

“‘If that comedian lived in this country or this country or this country, and if he had told that joke about the president last night, today he would probably be in jail.’ Pausing dramatically, he moved the pointer to another country. ‘And if that comedian lived in this country and told that joke last night about the president, today he would probably be dead.’

Moving the pointer to the United States, Mr. Larson said, ‘But, of course, that comedian lives in this country, and today he’s not in jail, and he’s not dead. He’s probably sitting somewhere drinking mineral water and thinking of something else to make people laugh again tonight.’”

This passage opens Mr. Larson’s lecture on First Amendment rights to freedom of speech in the United States. The first paragraph is a comparison and a reminder, both to his students and the reader, that the world is not the same everywhere. People tend to forget or not realize that the life they know is not the life everyone knows, and Mr. Larson demonstrates this by showing how different governments would respond to the same situation. In doing so, he shows the true power of freedom of speech and how it is often taken for granted. The second paragraph drives home the difference between a place that allows people to speak their minds and a place that doesn’t. Rather than be jailed or killed for criticizing the government, the comedian is moving on with his life, showing how freedom of speech interlocks with other freedoms—such as the freedom to pursue what we want to do and the stories we want to tell. Freedom of speech gives everyone a voice, and it is up to each individual how they use that voice, much like the tone of The Landry News rests with Cara and her staff.

“Dear PYB:

I have a cockatiel bird named Dingo, and all he will say is ‘pretty bird, pretty bird, pretty bird,’ over and over again. I talk to him for an hour every day, and I have tried to teach him to say other words, but he isn’t interested. No matter what I say to him, and no matter how many times I say it, all he says is ‘pretty bird, pretty bird, pretty bird.’ It’s driving me nuts. Any advice?

From Crazy in Birdland

Dear Crazy:

I think your bird is mad at you because you named him after an ugly Australian wild dog. He wants to make sure that you know he’s a bird, and a pretty one, too. Try changing his name to Wing-Ding or SuperBird or Flier, and see if that works. And if it doesn’t, maybe you should think about exactly why you want to be talking to a bird in the first place.

With deep concern, PYB”

This is an example of the types of articles and extras that appear in The Landry News once the staff expands. PYB (Pets? You Bet!) is a version of the advice column, adapted to the concerns of fifth-graders. Rather than providing romantic or money advice, the column discusses issues with pets, something many of the paper’s readers can relate to. This column also symbolizes The Importance of Trusting Others. Without Cara’s choice to trust her classmates with different parts of The Landry News, this column never would have existed. It is a fun, comedic part of the paper and shows the types of positive change that come out of collaboration and trust.

“Cara was hooked. The person in the story was a boy, and Cara was amazed at how similar his feelings were to the ones she’d had when her dad left. The same kind of anger, the same kind of blind lashing out. And finally, there was the same sort of calming down, facing facts. The story did not end very hopefully, but the boy saw that life would still go on, and that both his dad and his mom still loved him just as much, maybe more.”

Cara thinks this as she reads the divorce story one of her classmates asks her to anonymously publish in The Landry News. Up until this point, Cara has felt like the emotions she experienced when her dad left were specific to her. This moment makes Cara realize that she isn’t alone and that, if she understands this kid’s experience, there might be others who would also benefit from reading this story. Like the column above, this story symbolizes the power of collaboration and how working with others can bring nuances to a project that weren’t there before. This passage also shows how difficult situations do pass, an important life lesson for young readers. For Cara and the story’s author, their parents’ divorces felt like the end of the world and they felt alone. The book here shows readers that, like Cara and the boy, they are not alone and can come through times of adversity.

“But Karl Larson was absolutely sure of one thing. The kids did not deserve this one little bit. The Landry News had become something wonderful. And the thing that hurt him the most was that because of his problems—not the kids’ problems—Dr. Barnes was going to use this innocent little newspaper as the whip to send him packing.”

Here, Mr. Larson has just received news of his hearing for allowing inappropriate content to be published in The Landry News. His thoughts here symbolize how every situation has multiple angles and causes. The divorce story is the trigger for Dr. Barnes to take action, but it is not the reason. Rather, the history between Dr. Barnes and Mr. Larson, plus Mr. Larson’s poor teaching record, brought about the circumstances in which the divorce story became a convenient device Dr. Barnes can use to further his agenda. Mr. Larson tracks the events that led to this moment, placing much of the blame on himself, but he also realizes that this blame doesn’t matter now. Regardless of the events that led to the hearing, that is the current problem and needs to be dealt with on its own terms, not in terms of the past.

“For the next ten minutes, Mr. Larson walked the class through all the steps in the process—things that would happen before the hearing, at the hearing, and after the hearing. He wanted to make sure there was nothing mysterious, nothing scary about any of it. He did not paint Dr. Barnes as a villain or himself as a victim. It was not us against them. It was just a contest between two different ideas of what was right, what was the greatest good for the greatest number.”

Mr. Larson’s concern for The Landry News and his students here shows that he has found his love for teaching again and completed his character arc. His insistence on presenting all these details represents the importance of information and how going into a situation prepared makes it less daunting. His refusal to label himself a victim of Dr. Barnes shows his commitment to keeping this lecture neutral, much like a newspaper article. Through Mr. Larson, the novel shows that opposing viewpoints are simply different ways of viewing the same topic, deserving of acknowledgment and respect.

“If you flip that paper over, down at the bottom you can see our Internet address—isn’t that cool? By this time next week the Guardian will be online, and our Internet edition won’t use any paper at all! No litter! Isn’t that great?!”

Here, Cara has been called to Dr. Barnes’s office to discuss the Guardian. The passage is part of the book’s climax as Cara triumphs over Dr. Barnes rather than be controlled by him. While Dr. Barnes seeks to shut down the newspaper, Cara explains he has no power to do so because it is completely separate from the school, which shows the ingenuity of Cara and her friends, as well as how communities respond to protect themselves when they are threatened. The Guardian has expanded to be environmentally conscious, and an electronic version means there will soon be fewer pieces of paper they need to use. This symbolizes the power of a newspaper to become more than just an avenue for news. Through these new recycling and digital initiatives, the Guardian is now an advocate for good practices and change.

“Right away, Ms. Steinert wrote up a press release about the situation. A committee duplicated the eight copies of The Landry News and sent sets of them along with the information sheet to every newspaper, radio, and TV station in the greater Chicago area. They printed up handbills with the divorce story on it and mailed it to the home of every taxpayer in Carlton, asking the question, ‘Should someone be fired because of this?’”

This passage comes from a longer section in which the teachers at Mr. Larson’s school rally in support of him and against the charges Dr. Barnes has brought. This section shows the power of many people working together toward a common goal. This passage also shows the power of letting people think for themselves. The teachers simply send out copies of the newspaper and the divorce story. Whereas Dr. Barnes acts out of personal bias, Mr. Larson’s supporters take an empirical approach: They let the content stand on its own and ask people to make a decision based on what they read, not on what the teachers want them to think.

“This story about a divorce that you published—didn’t you think this would cause some problems? If this isn’t just a story, say, if this really happened, then some family’s business has been spread all over town. And, of course, many churchgoers think divorce itself is bad. Didn’t you think there might be a problem here?”

This passage shows the difference between news that reports and news that deliberately causes controversy. An example of a leading question, this passage shows the professional reporter is trying to sow discontent and start arguments. It also exposes a distasteful power imbalance, where the adult reporter is trying to trip up Cara. Here, the novel gives an example of unscrupulous reporting, as part of its exploration into the nature of expression and journalistic responsibility.