Setting the Stage

Gr 5 Up–Eighth grader Ella Amani has been theater-obsessed for as long as she can remember. Now, it’s finally her time to shine as stage manager for her school’s production of Curie: The Musical. She’s been prepping for this job for years; with her annotated binders and can-do attitude, she’s ready for anything! Except, it seems like all the problems cropping up are exactly what Ella’s not prepared for, like a major prank war with the show’s cast and growing distant from her BFF and tech lead Levi. When so much goes wrong that it feels like nothing can be fixed, the Juniper Valley Middle School crew must band together to help their fearless leader. Champion crafts a big, bustling novel that gives readers a comprehensive education on all things theater, specifically the intricacies and significance of the tech crew. The story flits between the first-person POV of multiple characters whose experiences are more distinct than their narrative voices. Having so many separate, interweaving plots bogs down the pacing for the first two-thirds of the novel as character personalities and backstories are established. Nevertheless, the action mounts towards the book’s end, and a major cliff-hanger will ensure readers anticipate the next installment. Character description is minimal aside from hair and eye color; Ella is described as having dark hair, and it is implied she is Iranian.