The Ninth Issue

Small-town foot­ball hero Blue Hock­er can’t make the team at his new Texas school, Nathan Hale High. “If you can’t join ’em, for­get ’em” he says, and he joins the staff of the school news­pa­per instead.

The Town Crier has always been a bor­ing paper.  In oth­er words: no news.  But the new staff, includ­ing Blue, becomes inspired by their enthu­si­as­tic young jour­nal­ism teacher, Mr. Choate.  Togeth­er they con­front issues in the school such as the use of drug-sniff­ing dogs and the Texas No-pass, No-play rule for ath­letes.  Stu­dent writ­ers, pho­tog­ra­phers, edi­tors and even gos­sip colum­nists pull togeth­er and chal­lenge the admin­is­tra­tion and the stu­dent body with a potent, new Town Crier.  Then, when the Supreme Court changes the rules for high school jour­nal­ism and Mr. Choate’s job is on the line, the stu­dents face some seri­ous ques­tions and a hot sto­ry explodes with controversy!

We are cur­rent­ly in the process of get­ting The Ninth Issue re-issued in ebook form.  Look for it in late 2014!

The Ninth Issue