Just Grace, Star on Stage by Charise Harper - ADVISABLE

Harper, Charise Mericle  Just Grace, Star on Stage, 194 pgs.  Houghton Mifflin, 2012.  $15.99  Content: G.  

At Grace’s school the teacher announces that they are going to have a play about plant life.  All of the students are excited, and Grace dreams of having the star role of Fairy Queen.  Her best friend Mimi wants to be the costume director.  Grace practices for the auditions and does such a good job that the teacher puts her as the narrator, instead of the Fairy Queen.  Grace is disappointed, but soon learns that her narrator part is really fun.  Grace’s other friend Sammy gets the part of King and Grace spends so much time helping him with his lines that she memorizes his lines as well.  Mimi works hard on the costumes and is the most proud of Sammy’s king costume.  The day of the play, Sammy becomes ill and Grace is worried that Mimi will be disappointed that her king costume won’t be in the play, so Grace takes the king’s part and the teacher does the narrator part which ends up saving the play.   

I love the Just Grace series because I think the main character is a good friend and she thinks through her problems.  In this book, Grace shows the same friendship and problem solving skills and she learns to be happy with the roles she is given.  These are great books for young readers because each page spread has little cartoon figures to illustrate the story.  

EL (4-6)-ADVISABLE.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.