When Finn Reardon's father dies, he decides to support his mother and eight siblings by peddling newspapers on the street corners of New York City. But when the two biggest newspaper publishers, Hearst and Pulitzer, raise the wholesale price Finn and his friends pay for the papers they sell, the boys band together and go on strike..

		May 26, 1899 School is jail for children, but it lets its prisoners out at three o'clock. As soon as we're free, nearly every fella in my class heads for Newspaper Row . . . Newspaper Row is crowded with boys of all sizes, waiting for the afternoon editions to come off the presses . . . We drink coffee, bolt hot dogs, throw dice, pitch pennies, bet on paper horses, and play alley ball. Some newsies cheat their customers by stretching the truth or makin up headlines just to sell newspapers . . . By the timethe customer realizes he's been suckered, he's blocks away, sitting on a train or trolley, or he's home eating his dinner. But not me. I'm not one of those newsies because I hate it when someone lies to me. And I don't pull dodges that cheat customers out of their change because I hate it when somebody cheats me . . . I'm a newsie you can trust.