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Take It from the Top

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Set at a camp over the course of six summers, this novel dives into the falling-out of two girls from different backgrounds who thought they'd be friends forever...until a production of Wicked brings all their buried issues to the surface. Claire Swinarski, Edgar Award nominee of the ALA Notable What Happened to Rachel Riley?, tackles privilege, perspective, and the power of friendship in this page-turning puzzle that readers will devour.

Eowyn Becker has waited all year to attend her sixth summer at Lamplighter Lake Summer Camp. Here, the pain of her mom's death can't reach her, and she gets to reunite with her best friend, Jules Marrigan—the only person in the world who understands her. This year will be their year—Wicked, the girls' favorite musical, has been chosen for the camp's end-of-year production. If anyone can be Glinda to Eowyn's Elphaba, it's Jules!

But when Eowyn arrives at camp, everything seems wrong. The best-friend reunion Eowyn had been dreaming of doesn't go as planned. Jules will barely even look at Eowyn, let alone talk to her, and Eowyn has no idea why.

Well, maybe she does...

There are two sides to every story, and if you want to understand this one, you'll need to hear both. Told in a series of alternating chapters that dip back to past summers, the girls' story will soon reveal how Eowyn and Jules went from being best friends to fierce foils. Can they mend ways before the curtains close on what was supposed to be the best summer of their lives?

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    • Kirkus

      Starred review from September 15, 2024
      During their sixth summer at Lamplighter Lake Summer Camp for the Arts, two girls' broken friendship is tested even further. Thirteen-year-olds Eowyn Becker and Jules Marrigan became best friends during their first Wisconsin camp summer. Over the years, though, their friendship has developed cracks. Talented Eowyn suffers from severe stage fright, desperately misses her deceased mother, and resents her doctor father and Broadway-star brother, who have little time for her. She covets Jules' supportive family and effortless onstage presence. For her part, West Virginian scholarship camper Jules covets Eowyn's wealth and connections and feels that Eowyn doesn't understand her less-fortunate circumstances. Jules is also bothered by Eowyn's oblivious need for attention, which ruined last summer's show, taking the spotlight off Jules in her lead role. When both girls (who present white) earn starring roles inWicked this summer, can they, like Galinda and Elphaba, find their way past their mutual loathing and become friends who truly see each other? Told in Eowyn's first-person voice in the present and Jules' third-person perspective in the past, this masterful exploration of friendship gone wrong is permeated with a bone-deep, warts-and-all love of both camp and theater. Evocative worldbuilding brings Lamplighter to life for the intimately developed, well-intentioned characters, who often struggle to see other points of view. The well-paced interweaving of multiple summers' experiences builds tension and shines light on how the past reverberates into the present. Brilliantly executed: a gem that's a love letter to theater and summer camp.(Fiction. 9-13)

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      October 15, 2024
      Grades 4-7 Jules and Eowyn have been best friends ever since they met six years ago at fine-arts summer camp Lamplighter Lake. This year, though, Jules is suddenly distant. She's from a lower-income family that doesn't have a school with fine arts-programs, whereas Eowyn has a wealthy father and a Broadway-star brother. Eowyn's mother died when she was young, so for Eowyn, camp is a place of respite, whereas for Jules it's a place to find belonging. While their friendship fractures, the musical of their dreams, Wicked, is selected as the main-stage show. As the story is told in flashbacks from Jules' point of view and present-day chapters from Eowyn's, readers uncover the ways jealousy has crept into the girls' friendship. The clever use of Wicked, with Elphaba and Glinda's story mirroring that of Eowyn and Jules, provides an effective way to share the importance of the arts in telling stories and helping to process real-life issues. A must-read for middle-grade fans looking for realistic friendship stories that tug at the heartstrings.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from September 16, 2024
      Eowyn Becker lives for theater summer camp, where she can follow in her deceased stage star mother’s footsteps and finally hang out with her long-distance best friend Jules. The northern Wisconsin camp also provides welcome relief from the stress of her Broadway star older brother’s career and her distracted, grieving father. As 13-year-olds, Eowyn and Jules get to participate in the musical production at the end of the summer, and as the camp’s best singer, Eowyn is gunning for a leading role, despite her stage fright that’s been getting worse. And Jules has seemed distant lately, even cold. Eowyn doesn’t understand why but worries that it’s because of a disastrous incident during last year’s show. When the two are cast as leads in Wicked, Eowyn hopes that working together will help mend their friendship, but the rift only deepens. The vibrant and exceptionally rendered setting makes for a compelling backdrop against which layered character building unravels. Swinarski (What Happened to Rachel Riley?) intersperses Eowyn’s conversational narration—suffused with theater-obsessed sensibilities—with sympathetic third person chapters that cover the events of previous summers, offering context and history to the white-cued girls’ relationship. Ages 8–12. Agent: Alexander Slater, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc.

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