The Newspaper Club by Beth Vrabel

Item: The Newspaper Club
Rating: 5
Author: karenbaron

Posted May 27, 2023 by karenbaron in Children's, Mystery, Review, Series / 0 Comments

The Newspaper Club

by Beth Vrabel

Series: Newspaper Club Series #1
Series Rating:

Illustrator: Paula Franco
Published by Running Press Kids on March 10, 2020
Setting: Bear Creek, Maine
Genres: Middle Grade Mystery
Pages: 208
Format: Kindle
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Get Your Copy at: Amazon

Starred Kirkus Review
Learn what it means to be a journalist in this fun, fast-paced new middle grade series about a club of kid reporters by an award-winning author.

Shortly after Nellie Murrow, named for one of the fiercest journalists who ever lived and daughter of two (former) newspaper reporters, move to sleepy Bear Creek, Maine, rumors of vandalism and attacks at the only park in town are keeping Nellie saddled to the house.

Some townspeople say the attacks are gang recruitments. Others blame a vagrant spotted on the hiking trails around town. But when Nellie thinks like a reporter, none of those explanations make sense. Something is happening at the park, but what? All of the fake online news and rumors are clouding the real news.

Nellie wants to break the story--and break free from the front yard-but she can't do it alone. She needs a whole club if she's going to start the town's first independent newspaper--The Cub Report. Creating a newspaper from scratch is going to be tough; but for Nellie, making friends is even harder.

The Newspaper Club by Beth Vrabel lets us see how a young girl makes new friends by doing something she loves.

Can Nellie start a newspaper and make friends at the same time?

Nellie Murrow

Nellie Murrow is only eleven years old and knows what she wants to be when she grows up. It doesn’t help that she has already started to do her job since her parents used to take her to work with them. Nellie Murrow wants to be an investigative journalist one day and even further intends to run her own newspaper. Once she and her mom make it to Bear Creek, Maine, Nellie has always had difficulty making friends, which is even worse now.

Well, until she stumbles upon a story that needs to be published; however, the only newspaper in town won’t hear what she has to say. Nellie then decides to start her own newspaper club with other kids that she will train to help her out. Unknowingly, Nellie has created a great group of friends for herself in this new town without even trying. Nellie is a great main character. Even if she is a bit rough around the edges, that sometimes comes with the territory of being a genius. Not only that, though, but she is trying.

The Story

Nellie Murrow and her mom have moved to Bear Creek, Maine, to escape the hustle and bustle of the big city, especially when her father isn’t in the picture anymore. She is vehemently against this move even if her mom has talked her into how this will be a big adventure for them. Her mom is squirreled away in the house, writing a romance book and leaving Nellie to play with Min next door.

Min is the daughter of one of Nellie’s sorority sisters, and Nellie doesn’t quite get along with her. Nellie meets her various new friends throughout the book on the way to start their newspaper and gathering clues to what is happening at the park. I figured there was a connection between a clue they uncovered and the park. Sadly, I couldn’t figure out what it was until Nellie started to unravel it, and I discovered I was right.

Five Stars

The Newspaper Club by Beth Vrabel is a fantastic story of getting young kids into the love of reading a newspaper and seeing what it takes to make a newspaper happen. I love how Nellie takes every one of the club members under her wing to help them find their place at the club. Not only that but how Nellie thinks she would never belong in Bear Creek while finding her place in said town. Ms. Vrabel has done a great job starting this series, and I can’t wait to see where Nellie and the other Cub Reporters go in future installments.

The Newspaper Club Series

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of The Newspaper Club by Beth Vrabel.

Until the next time,

Happy Reading!

About Beth Vrabel

Beth Vrabel grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania. She won a short-story contest in fourth grade and promptly decided writing was what she was going to do with her life. Although her other plans–becoming a wolf biologist, a Yellowstone National Park ranger, and a professional roller skater–didn’t come to fruition, she stuck with the writing. After graduating from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in journalism, she moved through the ranks of a local newspaper to become editor of two regional magazines and a lifestyle columnist. Beth now lives in Connecticut with her wonderful husband, two charming children, a spoiled rotten puppy, and two guinea pigs, Winn-Dixie and Pippin.

Winner of the 2022 Connecticut Book Award for Middle Grade Fiction (“To Tell You the Truth”)
Winner of 2021 Housatonic Award for Middle Grade (“The Newspaper Club”)
Selected for Junior Library Guild (“A Blind Guide to Normal” and “Lies I Tell Myself”)
2021-22 SSYRA Finalist (“The Newspaper Club”)
2016 International Literacy Award winner (“A Blind Guide to Stinkville”)
Vrabel’s books have been finalists for the Mark Twain Award, Great Stone Face Book Award, the South Carolina Children’s Book Award, the Louisiana Young Reader’s Choice Award, the Bluestem, and Rhode Island Middle School Book Award, among others.