Charlotte Jones is not happy, and she's come to tell us why. With her father Jonathan, she's taken the train from Kent and here she is, small and perhaps a tad nervous but quietly determined nonetheless, marching across the office in purple smock and pigtails with her hand stuck firmly out in front of her and a this-had-better-be-good-sunshine smile on her face. "Hello," she says. "I'm Charlotte. I wrote you a letter."

She certainly did. It was published on the letters page on 20 May. "You scrap the Saturday comic section aimed at children for money reasons and then this week we get a section, Foul Play, about football, just as the season ends," it read. "You guys are losing it. Charlotte Jones (8) Tenterden, Kent."

You will understand my trepidation as I reach for her hand. In my experience, eight-year-olds take few prisoners.

In a blatant bid to buy time, I take her to the canteen. Charlotte approves of the swanky furniture, which is a relief, and opts after some thought for a freshly squeezed apple juice. Intriguingly, she stashes the emptied bottle away in her backpack. A memento, maybe? A sign that in spite of everything, she may still see her visit as more than just a chance to hammer a few more nails into the half-sealed coffin of a once-great newspaper?

Who knows? Emboldened, I ask her what she saw in the comic anyway. "I liked it," she says, simply. "They were really good stories and I was always keen to see what would happen in the next episode. The sudokus and kids' crosswords were brilliant. There were always fun things to make. It was really, really good. I read it in bed." (It was, it seems, customary in the Jones family to save the best bits of the Saturday Guardian until Sunday morning, when everyone would pile into bed with Mum and Dad. Father read Money, mother Family, and Charlotte and baby brother Ben the comic.)

Father, in particular, she declares, is a Great Guardian Reader. "My class at Tenterden Juniors are always running out of newspapers to use in our art lessons," she explains. "We really need them and I'm always trying to take some of ours in; we've got so many. But my dad always says no, because he hasn't finished reading them yet. 'I'll get round to them eventually,' he says."

But then, all of a sudden, the comic stopped. "We just couldn't understand it," she complains to a startled but very sympathetic Polly Toynbee before the start of the Guardian's morning news conference. "The pirates were just about to get the golden monkey's head, I think, and then the next episode just never came! So we never got to find out what happened. And now we'll never know."

Morning conference, obviously, was pretty boring: all house prices and Iranian elections and some Russian former spy maybe buying the Independent, about which several colleagues - even the editor - were much exercised. Dad was fascinated, but Charlotte was actually more interested in the microphones dangling from the ceiling, and the undeniably startling fact that the whole thing was being filmed and we could, had we wished, have watched it all on my desktop. "You've got how many TV channels on your computer?" she whispers. "That's cool."

Then the Editor asks who she is, and Emily the G2 editor explains, and everyone looks at Charlotte, which she finds just a tiny a bit overwhelming, but manages to squeak out a "Thank you very much" anyway. Then a photographer called Graeme takes hundreds and hundreds of photographs of her sitting in an armchair and fiddling with a computer and stuff, and then it's time for the G2 morning meeting; we have asked Charlotte to help decide what should be in today's section. It doesn't get off to a promising start: Charlotte's not sure who Ben Fogle, the subject of the cover story, is. ("You would know if you were 10 years older," says Emily.)

But choosing the main Shortcut of the day is a no-brainer. Wedding Lists? "Boring". All-Black Boys Band? "Boring." Possibly World's Most Expensive Magazine Ever Launches In Depths Of Recession? "I think that would probably send me to sleep." New Film About Incredibly Bossy Glossy Lady Magazine Editor [Anna Wintour] Who's Even Stricter Than One of Charlotte's Teachers, If That's Possible? "Ummmm. Maybe." Bestselling Car In US Last Year Was Little Tikes Cozy Coupe? "Yes. Brilliant. That one," says Charlotte. She's absolutely right, says Emily. Little Tikes it is.

And now it's crunch time. On the Family desk, Steve, the section's deputy editor, undertakes to explain why the comic had to go. He talks circulation, ad revenue, print time, production costs, staffing, editorial v marketing budgets, and cuts. But it's a real shame, he agrees: "We didn't want to see it go, honest. And we've had about 400 emails just like yours. But the good thing is you're here now, and we can explain. We need people your age to be interested in newspapers."

Charlotte is not entirely convinced. If that's the case, she asks, why isn't there a daily children's page, in G2 maybe? "With instructions on how to make stuff, you know, and Boggle squares where you have to make as many words as you can, and some articles specially written for children about really important things, like climate change. And maybe reviews of good children's books. I think that's what you should do. All right?"

And with that she's off, to the British Library, to catch a first edition of Winnie-the-Pooh. When she grows up, she says, by way of farewell, she thinks she would quite like to be an author. But not, all things considered, a journalist.

'I got to help choose Shortcuts': Charlotte's day in the office

I was invited to the Guardian because I wrote a letter complaining that the Saturday Comic section for children had been dropped.

My first impression when we arrived was that the waiting room was trendy and everything looked very modern and clean. I went to the morning conference which is where the main news topics are discussed. Every section of the paper had to tell the editor what they would be featuring next day. The whole meeting is beamed live to all the journalists' computers. I thought that was very cool.

Then I got to help Emily and the G2 team choose which Shortcuts would be included in the next G2, and which would be dropped. During the meeting I decided that an article about the biggest-selling car in the US was my favourite. The answer was unexpected so that made it funny, but there is also a serious side to this because my dad works in the car industry. Hopefully you will all enjoy the piece.

Then I talked to Steve who works on the Family section and he explained that because sales are falling and there isn't so much advertising and the costs keep going up, the comic had just become too expensive to run. Although I can understand the reasons it is still a big shame and I really miss reading it.

Perhaps there could be a children's page every day in G2 which could include book reviews for children, some word games eg Boggle or Scrabble, some things to make, and maybe a short comic strip, like a kind of Steve Bell for children. I like Steve Bell even if I don't always understand him.

I was a bit nervous before I came in but everyone was very friendly and welcoming and I had a brilliant time. Thank you.
CJ