The Renegade Reporters

I didn’t have a cellphone until I was a freshman in college. And that relic was a flip phone capable of receiving calls only. Today’s kids would say it belongs in a museum. So I find it fascinating that a slew of books for younger readers now feature kids using tech in all sorts of sophisticated ways.

When and how to introduce kids to technology is one of the most pressing questions parents face. So when Ash, the main character of Elissa Brent Weissman’s The Renegade Reporters, loses her spot on the school news team over a viral video that accidentally broadcasts a teachers private moments, adult readers will nod along in understanding even as middle grade readers fume right along with Ash.

Luckily Ash’s Dads (the book is full of wonderful diverse representation btw) believe in letting their daughter learn her own lessons. Therefore they sanction the creation of a Renegade Broadcast, to be streamed only after parental review. Ash and her friends set out to create their own news program, but along the way they uncover some disturbing facts about the company that created the software program all the kids at her school use.

In a fabulous example of censorship that feels very real world, the company threatens to erase the accounts of Ash and her friends when they find out what she is investigating. They even get her in trouble with the principal, who refuses to hear Ash’s side of the story.

Ash and her friends find allies in their family and manage to release the story anyway, creating real change for their school and the media company. Along the way, the renegade reporters are forced to examine their relationship with technology. As a testament to the authors skill, each reporter displays a different and nuanced attitude. Instead of a simple solution, the reader is forced to ask themselves the question – how much privacy are you willing to forgo in exchange for convenience?

Ash also takes a look within herself, grappling with a school rivalry during a Yom Kippur service and atoning for her actions with the viral video incident that first started the story off. There is no outright moralizing, but in true Rabbinic fashion, the leader of the Children’s Services on Yom Kippur leads the youth group through a guided reflection exercise that has Ash viewing her past actions in a new light.

In the efforts of authenticity I asked around to a few parents, spanning a variety of schools, to find out at what age their kids received their first cell phone. The responses varied from third to eight grade, quashing any doubts I had about this being a realistic depiction of kids and tech. The world has changed a lot since I got that first cell phone. It’s our job to help kids learn the questions they need to ask to navigate that properly.

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E Broderick is a writer and speculative fiction enthusiast. When not writing she enjoys epic games of trivial pursuit and baking. She currently lives in the U.S. but is eagerly awaiting the day a sentient spaceship offers to take her traveling around the galaxy.