THE RENEGADE REPORTERS

After Ashley filmed Coach Kelly dancing in her sports bra and it went viral, she was relieved of her role as reporter for the school news program.

Together with her best friend, cameraperson Maya, and their video editor friend, Brielle, she forms the Renegade Reporters. The sixth graders decide to start a YouTube show about news events in Baltimore. Ashley discovers that Van Ness, the media company sponsoring the school news and creator of the software students use, has selected her classmate Harry, the lead anchor, as a young creative to feature on their website. Ash wants to interview company founder Maria Van Ness because she feels it’s unethical for them to promote Harry without disclosing their sponsorship. When she and Maya show up at the company headquarters, they accidentally discover that Van Ness is collecting personal data from their young users. The novel then becomes a lesson on journalistic investigation and cybersecurity, with the team researching, interviewing experts, and zeroing in on their target. Whether middle-grade readers will be concerned about this important issue is questionable, but the unfolding of the investigation is skillfully handled, and kids will cheer for the perspicacious young reporters. Jewish Ash has two dads; Maya is cued as South Asian Indian, and the cover shows Brielle as Black but nothing in the text corroborates this.

A solid mystery that discusses data privacy and journalistic integrity.