OVER THE TOP

An anxious sixth grader’s decision to audition for the school play backfires spectacularly.

There’s nothing Diva Cleopatra Pankowski hates more than standing out in a crowd. Unlike her ebullient, oblivious, outlandishly extroverted mother, Rosie, a party planner who loves attention, Diva longs for quiet and privacy and is more like her introspective father. Adding to her worries is the fact that her parents have purchased a pink, castlelike house that is notorious as an eyesore in town. On top of all that, Miranda, one of the meanest girls in her grade, is her new neighbor. Diva, who enjoys theater, decides to try out for the school play, The Wizard of Oz, as a strategy for making new friends, even though Miranda boasts she is always cast in the lead role. But Diva immediately regrets that decision after she is cast as the Yellow Brick Road. Hughes’ depictions of social anxiety and bullying, as well as the growth of Diva’s relationships with her mother and outgoing younger brother, are vivid and memorable. Diva is the child of an Indian mother and White father; although her biracial physical appearance is mentioned as a source of difficulty for her, this element of her identity is not developed or given any texture. Still, readers will be cheering for Diva, whose humor and personality shine on the page.

An encouraging tale of a preteen learning to navigate anxiety and speak up for what she needs.