It’s the end of year four and the start of the summer holidays. Nine-year-old Anne Googanstein (nicknamed Frankenstein by the horrible Rodney Picton, but Frankie to her friends) just wants to hang out with her best-friend-forever Billy Bloom. But boring Mr Grumble has given them a school project about what they want to be when they grow up.

When Frankie meets a real life journalist, she decides to write and distribute her own newspaper. But a newspaper needs news, so soon Frankie is revealing her family secrets in print to every house in the neighbourhood. However, thanks to her nose for news, she also saves the life of a neighbour, salvages the relationship between her mum and Greg Green, and discovers that some nincompoops make really good friends.