ACT I, ACT II, ACT NORMAL

Into the middle school world of Populars, Jocks, Goths, Losers, and generally pissed-off and kiss-ass kids comes Christopher Blakely, known as Topher to his friends. Topher is an actor, and the annual play is his favorite part of school life, even when the upcoming offering is Rumpelstiltskin, a play with “huge dork potential.” But the play must go on, with endless rehearsals, misadventures, and “all the arguing and crabby comments and fears.” Weston has a light, comic touch and a sure hand with dialogue, but whether her first novel for intermediate readers is a mirror of middle-school life or a satire, the casual meanness of the social hierarchy and tiresome talk of jerks, dorks, and fags, fairies, and queens ought to make any reader uncomfortable. Topher navigates his way through it all and finds success on the stage and a sure sense of his place in the world. (Fiction. 10-14)