On the Air & Off the

Minnie O'Reilly, age 12, is the narrator of this first book in the KID-TV series, about a group of kids who find themselves in charge of the now-defunct educational TV station. Their first newscast, anchored by Lance Larchmont, is a disaster. Minnie, a gofer on the show, is confident that they'll improve, but it looks like their source of funding is drying up: R. Z. Wells is the richest (and meanest) man in Wellsburg, and he's not sure he can afford to finance the station. When laid-off factory workers attempt to rob the local bank, KID-TV's business manager, Dave Madison, talks them into letting his station air their grievancesthe youthful reporters and camera-persons agree to become hostages in exchange for the rights to exclusive coverage. Minnie gets R. Z. Wells to reopen the factory where the men worked by threatening him with bad publicity. The hostage crisis is over, and KID-TV can stay on the air. While this is lively reading, it's a bit hard to keep all the characters and relationships straight. Readers are plunged right into the first broadcast without ever knowing what brought this particular group of kids together in the first place. (8-12)