Penelope Bailey is an 11 year old girl who is absolutely obsessed with acting. She lives, thinks, and talks acting. If you haven’t guessed already her dream is to be a famous actress on stage. Penelope and her best friend, Cassie are planning on practicing scenes from Romeo and Juliet over the summer to perform at their school in the fall. But, Penelope’s mom decides to go and help her dad on a scientific experiment and sends Penelope to live with her aunt and three cousins. Penelope is horrified. She can stand her bratty cousins, but not her aunt. Her aunt thinks that anything and anyone to do with the theater is vulgar and shouldn’t be on the earth. Penelope doesn’t think she will survive. Then she befriends a girl at her new school, a professional actor next door, and a flamboyant dancer/actress who has a totally different life style then Penelope has ever seen or heard of before. With their help and encouragement Penelope learns to follow her dreams and to never ever give them up.
Named by Scripps Howard News Service as One of the Best Kid’s Books of 2006, this book is definitely one of my favorites. I am an aspiring actress and this book was perfect for me. It gave me encouragement, self confidence, and even some useful tips on acting. I believe any performer, actress, dancer, or singer will eat this book up just as much as I did. I applaud Susanna Reich.
Rating (0 - 10 scale): 9
Reviewer Age: 15
Reviewer City, State and Country: Moscow, Idaho United States of America
