Cara Landry, a student in Mr. Larson's 5th grade classroom, publishes her own newspaper titled "The Landry News". She includes an editorial about her teacher, Mr. Larson, who had once been the teacher of the year, but had over time become completely apathetic and demoralized. Mr. Larson soon returns to his old teaching ways, when Cara's merciless editorial opens his eyes to the truth. Cara continues the class newspaper as a "class project" and extends the newspaper with every edition, as the rest of the class begins to contribute to it.
One day, a boy in the class comes up to her and asks if she could read a story his "friend" wrote, titled "Lost and Found". Cara realizes it was the boy who wrote the story, which is about a divorce between his parents and how he learned to deal with it. She loves the article because it describes how she felt when her parents were divorced. The story is printed in "The Landry News", only to have the principal, Dr. Barnes become furious at Mr. Larson for allowing it. Dr. Barnes is actually seeking a pretext to get rid of Mr. Larson, because he disapproves of the way Mr. Larson teaches. Dr. Barnes begins telling the media that the "article is too personally revealing for children, or anyone else," and forbids publication of the "Landry News".
The newspaper receives publicity because of the paper being banned, Cara is interviewed for TV, and a hearing is planned for Mr. Larson. On the day of the hearing, the boy who wrote the story reads it out loud. Cara says that if he is brave enough to say what he feels, the rest of them should be able to read his words. Mr. Larson is vindicated, and Cara hands out a special edition of the "Landry News". The last article of the newspaper is an editorial written by Cara, saying that Mr. Larson will soon be "Teacher of the Year" again. He then realizes that he had made the mistake of not taking care of the students' needs before this.
