Digital Disaster!

When the newspaper staff goes digital, they learn the hard way that backup files are anything but optional.

Cherry Valley Middle School has all-new computers, which means the school newspaper can produce its first-ever online edition of The Cherry Valley Voice. Sam loves desktop publishing and enjoys cutting and editing stories online and getting instant visual feedback. And it’s amazing that the paper can go “live” at the press of a button!

But when it’s time for that button to be pressed, a terrible thunderstorm prompts a power surge that wipes out the entire issue. And no one has created backup copies of their work!

The next day is the class trip to the amusement park, which Sam and the rest of the newspaper staff have been looking forward to for ages. But will the trip be everything Sam hopes for, or will that, too, turn into a big disaster?

Rachel Wise loves to give advice. When she’s not editing or writing children’s books, which she does full-time at a publisher in New York, she’s reading advice columns in newspapers, magazines, and blogs—and is always sure her advice would be better! Her dream is to someday have her own talk show, where she could share her wisdom with millions of people at once, but for now she’s happy to dole out advice in small portions in Dear Know-It-All books.