HERE'S HOW I SEE IT - HERE'S HOW IT IS, by Heather Henson

HERE'S HOW I SEE IT - HERE'S HOW IT IS
by Heather Henson

(Atheneum/Simon & Schuster)

I may not have a summer stock theater in my backyard, but man can I relate to a season where everything goes rotten. Junebug knows she's leading lady material, but so far she's only been cast as. . .a thunderstorm. Plus, her family's cracking at the seams, and there's a weirdo wannabe thespian trailing her like a puppy dog. Oh, and she might have given her own father a heart attack. Yet the show must go on.

The story may revolve around stock theater, but you won't find stock characters here. And the two-birds-with-one-stone way Henson gets across all sorts of information about the history of acting and the stage made me grin - once I'd caught on, that is. This is a book anyone can love, but given Junebug's ping-ponging between her dreams (Here's How I See It) and reality (Here's How It Is) I'm betting fans of Linda Urban's A Crooked Kind of Perfect in particular will find a friend indeed in this plunge into the performing arts.

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Currently reading:

Pollyanna
by Eleanor H. Porter