Limelight
Curtain Up on Poetry Comics!
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A clever kids’ graphic novel featuring a unique collection of theater-inspired poems, told in 3 acts that chronicle a musical, from auditions to opening night!
Young thespian fans of Theater Camp and Better Nate Than Ever will cherish this love letter to theater and theater production. Enjoy the show!
An appealing combination of fun comic illustrations and verse, Limelight is a collection in 3 acts and takes place during the mounting of a middle-school musical theater production. From auditions to rehearsals to the drama of opening night, this genre busting, poetry graphic novel gives voice to all things theater.
Script's Tips
Dear actors, advice:
be perfect, precise—
say what the playwright wrote!
Throw in some spice,
some fire and ice,
but please, don’t overemote.
Personification of the script, the rehearsal piano, the dressing room mirror and more, these fresh and funny poems prove that all the world's indeed a stage in this unprecedented middle-grade graphic novel.
Back matter includes information about poetic forms and theater terms to further enhance the reading.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Doors swing open. Step inside/ where dreams and fantasies reside," LaTulippe (The Crab Ballet) writes in this fond graphic novel homage to community theater and the myriad merging components necessary to produce a show. Utilizing mask poems told from the POVs of the book's numerous subjects, the author gives voice to the different processes, objects, and individuals that make up a full production, including the audition ("To get the part—/ first get through me./ I'm your nightmare./ I'm your dream"), a pair of tap shoes ("Toppity tuppity tippity TAP!"), the crew in blackout ("Like panthers we slink,/ completely in sync"), the yearning understudy ("if only she'd sneeze"), and the applause itself ("I surge./ I rise./ I roar"). Each separate piece combines to form a cohesive, enthusiastic narrative that's centered on a musical revue of the 1960s, '70s, '80s, and '90s, which Gonzales (the Carlos Gomez series) depicts in buoyant full-color illustrations and lively, movement-filled paneling. Child actors and crew are shown with various skin tones as they fret, work, and emote. Concludes with transcriptions of the poems sans artwork, descriptions of the poetic forms used, and a glossary of theater terms. Ages 9–12. Author's agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown Ltd. Illustrator's agent: Michael Thibeault, Art Rep NYC.
