Emma Is on the Air: Big News! by Ida Siegal (review)

Eight-year-old Emma wants to be famous, like the glamorous reporter on the evening news. When classmate Javier finds a worm on his hamburger at lunch, Emma knows she has her big story, and with the help of Papi (her Dominican father, a newspaper reporter), she records a newscast, which she uploads to her school’s online bulletin board. From there, Emma conducts interviews with classmates and school staff to get to the bottom of the “worm-burger” mystery. Eventually, Emma digs up the truth when she learns that Javier had a cardboard carton of dirt from the school garden next to the cardboard carton with his hamburger in it, and inadvertently set his hamburger down in the wrong carton. Emma’s final newscast saves the school’s lunchroom staff from the health inspector’s wrath and Emma is overjoyed that her reports not only made her “famous” at school but also helped people. Emma’s repeated clamoring for fame can get a bit tedious, she and her classmates are fairly one-note characterizations, and the monochromatic digital illustrations are generically cartoonish. Also, the mystery’s solution is overly convenient and unbelievable (wouldn’t a kid notice if he had set his burger in a box of dirt, or at least realize it after he’d found a worm on his burger?). Still, Emma’s spunk and persistence are appealing, and the book is instructive about news reporting. Budding newscasters and detectives will enjoy this the most, and they may want to follow this new series.