Drama

Raina Telgemeier

From Raina Telgemeier, the #1 New York Times bestselling, multiple Eisner Award-winning author of Smile and Sisters! Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school's production of Moon over Mississippi, she can't really sing. Instead she's the set designer for the drama department's stage crew, and this year she's determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn't know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and the crew members are having trouble working together? Not to mention the onstage AND offstage drama that occurs once the actors are chosen. And when two cute brothers enter the picture, things get even crazier!

Jennifer

I read this because it was on the banned book list and because I want to get into reading more graphic novels. It was cute and reminded me of my drama friends in high school. Again, I’m glad to see gays represented in a cute, accepting way. Like any high school story of any type, things are oversimplified, but this is for kids so duh. I also appreciated that the main girl was following her passion. Super cute.

Patrick Book

Sarah Sammis

Izza

jess

This was nice, short, and cute! I love, love musicals and this was an amazing tribute to how most people start out: school theatre. I also love that it wasn't focused on the actors but the crew and that Callie had dreams of being famous in set design. I'm an actor, but the crew really does not get appreciation and I love that this revolved around crew members.

I also liked the romance aspect of it, which seemed very realistic of middle school kids figuring out themselves and being overdramatic. It wasn't annoying though; and you could see that everyone cared about each other despite the tangled web of crushes. (view spoiler)[I'm also pleased that there are a few gay & bi characters, and that two boys kissed on-page! This is the first I've seen in a middle grade book that this has happened. Everything was written realistically too; you have characters figuring themselves out on the page which is really nice.

I really liked Callie's character and how enthusiastic she was about everything. It really gave her life. I do think everyone else could have been developed a bit more though, especially Liz. Also, the art style was wonderful and I love that it was structured into acts, with an intermission that blended seamlessly into the story.  (hide spoiler)]

Mariyah

Ken Yuen

** spoiler alert **
           Fun book that captures the feeling of being a teen. Like the mentions of bubble tea and manga and all those things.

Really like the twins, but I had a lot of trouble telling them apart. Their backstories were pretty cool and inclusive.

As an aside that has nothing to do with this story, I sort of got myself excited because I thought the twins were Asian at first. I thought "Oh cool, they're just regular guys in this book, and one of them is even gay." So I was disappointed when I saw their last name. Anyway, nothing to do with the story as written or the writing, just a little something that I experienced while reading it.

Addison Degginger

This was a book that I was never planning to read but did anyway because of work. My kids have been begging me to put this on my shelves for quite some time. I was always hesitant because it currently holds the 2015 award for "book with most challenges." Libraries across America have had to either remove this from their shelves or put a warning label on the front. You would think that would interest me, because I am all about supporting banned books. Yet for some reason I never felt compelled to pick it up. 
After giving in to my tiny people's requests, I took it home one weekend and gave it a read. Based on the buzz it has gotten I was expecting some controversial topics and eyebrow raising scenes. What did I find? I story about a group of middle school teens putting on their school play and facing challenges of life, friendship, and love. Oh and there is two gay characters that end up liking each other and kiss. SHOCKING AND SCARRING STUFF. 
I was so offended that an author would try to write scenes where students are in roles like "stage manager" and "costume designer." Furthermore, the main character Callie builds a cannon for the play. Children should not be exposed to cannon building! The audacity of the author thinking that young people can create, build, and make decisions about their life is just abominable. 
Needless to say I now have five copies on my library shelves and they are in constant demand.

mia ¿

** spoiler alert **
           i was not planning on reading this at all, or at least not when i did. but i picked it up to reread it last night on a whim because my wifi went out because it was stormy, and what better way to appreciate the atmosphere than to read a book? 

but anyway, yes this was a reread. i must have read this book for the first time close to when it came out since i got it from a scholastic book fair at my elementary school. i was probably in fifth or sixth grade? which, crazy. i think i was a little young to understand everything that was going on in the book, but not too young. still, i wanted to remember what had happened because i remember thinking this was a cute book.

and yay it was still a cute book!!! i'm kinda torn on whether or not to give this five stars because i felt like it was too young for me but it was still really good. i was surprised that it was about middle schoolers because some of the topics discussed seemed a little mature for that age, but maybe this was really just a "progressive" middle school, as the book said, and all the students were really comfortable with themselves and their identity. i for sure can't relate, and neither can any of my friends from middle school, but maybe that's what we get for going to a private religious school. (seriously tho, who's comfortable with themselves in middle school? even eighth grade seems so young to have any kind of confidence, especially if you're part of a marginalized group)

all my commentary aside, the story here was really great. i loved the premise of a stage crew working to get ready for a play, and all the drama callie has to deal with did feel very middle school (but maybe even early high school tbh). i especially liked how when callie's original crush greg comes around in the final act to ask her to be his girlfriend, and callie says no. for a second there i was scared they were gonna get together and the author really was gonna go for the cliche "it took me so long to notice that the girl i needed was right in front of me all along" but she didn't!!! honestly, i was surprised callie had grown so much since the beginning of the story and realized her own worth and just walked away from greg, because i feel like most middle schoolers would just forgive him and date him anyway. that ending alone made this a great read for younger kids who are starting to realize the bad intentions of people and their manipulative behavior. there were a lot of great lessons here, but honestly the best one was that she didn't need to end up with a guy at the end to be happy. callie is really too young to be worrying about that, and middle school relationships don't last anyway.

also, i totally forgot about the scene where jesse saves the play by dressing as the female lead and also gets to kiss west. it was a really great scene and honestly very surprising even tho jesse's talents were hinted at a lot in the book. amazing stuff, truly. very fluffy and sweet but still deals with some real issues. maybe it gets a five after all...

Caroline Lewicki

I have yet to read a Raina Telgemeier book that I didn’t absolutely love and completely relate to! Drama is a fun, sweet graphic novel about friendship, middle school crushes, and being yourself.

Sahi K

I’m not much of a middle grade or graphic novel person, but I decided to pick this up for my Banned book prompt for the Popsugar Reading challenge. And this turned out to be such a cute, lovely, wholesome, inclusive and entertaining middle school story, set against the backdrop of a play being put on by the theatre department, told through the eyes of the stage crew. It can get pretty dramatic at times, but what’s some drama when it’s a theatre crew. The representation is sensitively portrayed, it’s all about young kids finding themselves and what they love, and enjoying what they do. It’s also about a young girl crushing on every nice guy, but then realizing she has time to figure it all out and she doesn’t need a guy and that great friendships are equally important. The artwork is also cute and very colorful, and I loved the way the hard work that goes into a theatre production is portrayed. 

I can’t believe that such wonderful books get banned just because some school boards/parents are bigoted and can’t understand/won’t tolerate acceptance of all kinds of sexualities. I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves reading middle grade stories.

Fiona Coffey

I love Raina Telgemeier’s graphic novels so much! No matter how old I am I’ll always enjoy them. Drama was so cute. It’s the first one I read that wasn’t autobiographical but I still really liked it. This one especially went by really fast! I think I’d probably have clicked with it just a little more if I was actually in middle school, but it was still very cute.

Kerry Gibbons

Meh. I don't know what I expected but this graphic novel I definitely aimed at the preteen crowd. Still enjoyable, just not what I was looking for.

Heather Heaton

Another of my niece's faves that I am reading per her request. I think my favorite part of this book was Callie's love of the theater. She is set with the task of organizing and making the sets for her school's play. I loved her passion for it. From watching movies from the time era to reading books on it. She was just so excited to learn and do everything she could. If I was younger I'm sure i would enjoy this book more, but it's just not meant for me and my reading tastes hence the 3 star average read rating.

Callie rides an emotional roller coaster while serving on the stage crew for a middle school production of Moon over Mississippi as various relationships start and end, and others never quite get going.

Katie

This was such a cute book! A little immature for me, which makes sense because it's middle grade, so I don't hold that against it at all. The artwork was phenomenal, the storyline was good, and it was just a fun, quick read. I will definitely have this book in my classroom in the future.

Shawna Gavas

This book was shelved in our local book store for ages 9-12. Although it was a great story, I felt the story was a little mature for my 9 year old. A 12 year old yes.....but for those with a younger reader you might want to give it a read first!

Drama

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