We Interrupt This Semester for an Important Bulletin by Ellen Conford

First published: 1979

Subjects: Education, friendship, and love and romance

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Social realism

Time of work: The late 1970’s

Recommended Ages: 13-15

Locale: A typical suburban high school

Principal Characters:

• Carrie Wasserman, a high school sophomore experiencing the joys and trials of first love
• Chip Custer, the senior boy whom Carrie has been dating for three months
• Prudie Tuckerman, a new student, who is beautiful, glamorous, rich, and stiff competition for Carrie
• Mr. Mark Thatcher, the new faculty adviser for the student newspaper
• Claudia, one of Carrie’s best friends
• Terry, Carrie’s other best friend
• Peter Kaplan, a freshman willing to help Carrie uncover a big story
• Dr. Wasserman, Carrie’s father and the head guidance counselor at the high school
• Mr. Nelson Fell, the head of the school lunch program

Form and Content

We Interrupt This Semester for an Important Bulletin is a tightly plotted high school novel that takes a humorous yet sensitive look at the joys, heartaches, and confusions of teenagers trying to understand both themselves and their relationships. The setting is a generic suburban high school in an unspecified city. Ellen Conford makes no attempt to present hard-hitting social realism, but she does deal with a wide range of concerns facing most young people as they enter the world of high school.

As Carrie Wasserman, the narrator, begins her sophomore year at Lincoln High School, everything seems perfect. She is the features editor for the Lincoln Log and is dating Chip Custer, a senior and editor-in-chief of the newspaper. In the first chapter, Conford subtly introduces two important conflicts. When the new faculty adviser shows up, Carrie is attracted by his good looks, feeling “all melty” inside, which causes her to feel confused and a bit guilty because she has a boyfriend. Another conflict involves the seriousness with which Chip takes his job as editor. These two issues are developed over the next few chapters. Carrie interviews the “incredibly gorgeous” new biology teacher and again is confused by the attraction that she feels. When she turns in her story, Chip, as editor, tells her bluntly that it is inadequate and cannot be printed. Her second interview is better, but Chip again edits it mercilessly, and Carrie is left close to tears as she equates his rejection of her work with a rejection of her.

The novel’s primary complication arises when new student Prudie Tuckerman arrives looking for a position on the newspaper staff. Prudie is beautiful in face and form, is rich, and oozes Southern charm—and she wastes no time in plying that charm on Chip. Carrie realizes that she cannot compete with Prudie, so she swears off men and dedicates herself to her career in journalism.

The rest of the novel plays out an overzealous attempt by Chip and Carrie to expose what they think is graft in the lunch program. Carrie, with the help of an adoring freshman reporter, bugs the office of Mr. Fell, the program director. In the meantime, Chip finds a “source” for further evidence of profiteering, and they rush a story into print with a joint byline. To celebrate the first issue, Prudie hosts a sophisticated dinner party at her luxurious home. Feeling hopelessly outclassed, Carrie gets drunk on Brandy Alexanders, and her breakup with Chip becomes official.

The lunch program story creates an uproar at the school, and they taste the excitement of big-time investigative reporting. Unfortunately, they also get a taste of reality as they are hauled into the principal’s office and shown that they have misinterpreted comments by Mr. Fell and have used a very unreliable “source” for facts. The Lincoln Log staff receives a strong reprimand, issues a retraction, and is put on probationary status. Prudie, who feels no responsibility for what happened or loyalty to the others, decides that neither journalism nor Chip is for her. The story ends with Carrie in Chip’s arms.

Critical Context

We Interrupt This Semester for an Important Bulletin is a sequel to Ellen Conford’s Dear Lovey Hart, I Am Desperate (1975), in which freshman Carrie Wasserman wreaks havoc as an advice columnist for the school newspaper. These books, and others such as Seven Days to a Brand-New Me (1981), a novel of self-esteem, represent Conford’s move to a somewhat older audience than the one for which she had been writing. Conford began with the picture books Impossible, Possum (1971) and Why Can’t I Be William? (1972). Later books such as Dreams of Victory (1973) and Me and the Terrible Two (1974) are aimed at mid-to upper-elementary students, to whom Conford continues to return in, for example, her Jenny Archer books.

Conford’s high school novels have found a legitimate niche in young adult literature, and their popularity is a sign that she hits the mark pretty closely with the thirteen-to fifteen-year-old audience. Conford understands that high school life, especially the first two years, is dominated by peer relationships. While it could certainly be argued that these works are not serious literature, there is no doubt about their value for young readers. They are intended to be light reading, easily accessible with strong plots and recognizable, sympathetic characters. Although the issues are not tough and there are no hard edges to the stories, Conford’s novels do focus on what, for a large number of young people, are serious concerns and problems.