This is a story of a year in the life of Jane Schumacher-Alston, children's author and past winner of the John Newbery Medal. Having recently fallen into a slump, Jane is staging a comeback of sorts. Aside from becoming the laughingstock of the industry for recently writing a number of books of questionable taste and relevance, Jane must also contend with the reprehensible subset of the Newbery Selection Committee known as "The Cadre." By blackmailing its way into a position of power that guarantees itself the means of controlling the Newbery vote, the Cadre has changed the rules of contention, effectively putting the Medal up for sale to the highest bidder.
