Here's How I See It--Here's How It Is
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
here's how i see it
Rave reviews, an endless request for autographs, my name in lights on Broadway.
here's how it is
The audience is half empty, I spend zero time onstage, my dad's midlife crisis is about to ruin the playhouse...and my family.
Junebug dreams of being a leading lady someday. A serious actress, a stage actress, a real actress. And it should be easy for her to get her start -- her parents own the Blue Moon Playhouse, after all, and her dad performed on Broadway (once). But the truth is, at (almost) thirteen, she's not even a supporting actress or a stand-in or an understudy or even a child actor has-been. In the current Blue Moon production, her role is this: thunder, props...and stagehand (gopher, actually). And lately it seems like maybe the stagehand mindset -- go unnoticed, don't say a word -- is rubbing off on Junebug's personality. She's starting to feel as though her opinions never count, her worries aren't taken seriously, that she's becoming the ultimate stagehand: invisible. And that's not a role she's happy with.
From author and former playhouse insider Heather Henson comes a novel about growing up, standing out, and what it means to live your life just outside of the spotlight.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Throughout the school year, budding actress June "Junebug" Cantrell feels like a fish out of water. Summers, however, are different. Working as a stagehand at the Blue Moon Playhouse, a theater run by her actor/director father, Junebug usually basks in the company of grownups "who think I'm this funny, precocious, mature-for-my-age kid." Unfortunately, the Blue Moon becomes less a refuge than a source of trauma the summer Junebug turns 13. Her father goes "totally gaga" over a pretty, young actress; her mother moves out; and Junebug is upstaged by intern Trace, whose odd behavior and soft stutter get on her nerves. Alternating Junebug's fantasies ("Here's how I see it: As a famous Broadway actress, there are so many demands on my time") with her more mundane reality ("Here's how it is: Office Duty"), Henson (Making the Run) creates a funny, bittersweet story filled with colorful personalities and plenty of backstage detail and drama. Readers will empathize with Junebug as she yearns for a place at center stage and for a happy ending for her broken family. Ages 10 14.
