Drama

Seventh-grader Callie is an aspiring set designer for her middle school’s stage crew. She spends her after-school hours building a working cannon and managing back-stage logistics for a production of Moon Over Mississippi. While she navigates technical challenges and a limited budget, she enters a complicated social circle involving two brothers, Justin and Jesse. The plot tracks their developing friendships, secret crushes, and the varying romantic tensions that emerge among the theater department students during rehearsals and opening night.

Middle-schoolers and fans of graphic narratives read this book to see their own social anxieties mirrored in a school setting. It provides a look at the collaborative nature of theater and the awkwardness of early adolescent dating. Readers see how characters manage unrequited feelings and navigate their sexual identities. The story leaves the audience with a realistic depiction of how friendships shift and stabilize during the transition into teenage years, emphasizing that creative work often provides a sense of belonging.

Clear-cut; an easy read.

Best for readers like The Curious Generalist. Which reader are you?