Here's How I See It--Here's How It Is

by Heather Henson

Overview

Props are important, and so is making thunder and closing curtains. Junebug takes these jobs very seriously: The Blue Moon is a serious playhouse, and her parents’ pride and joy. But lately the stagehand mindset—go unnoticed, don’t say a word, be as invisible as you can—is applying to Junebug’s life offstage as well. And that’s not a role she’s happy with.

As Junebug starts speaking up—about her sister’s ego, about the weird kid on staff, about her mom’s abrupt departure, and about her father’s new leading lady—she begins to realize that it’s hard to work without a script...and that sometimes scenes play out in ways that aren’t intended.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416997733
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	05/04/2010
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	710L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Heather Henson lives on a farm in Kentucky with her husband and three children, is the managing director of the Pioneer Playhouse, and is the author of several critically acclaimed picture books and novels, including Dream of Night, The Whole Sky, and the Christopher Award–winning That Book Woman.

Editorial Reviews

"Alternating Junebug's fantasies ("Here's how I see it: As a famous Broadway actress, there are so many demands on my time") with her more mundane reality ("Here's how it is: Office Duty"), Henson creates a funny, bittersweet story filled with colorful personalities and plenty of backstage detail and drama." — Publishers Weekly

"Age-appropriate dialogue and a likeable ensemble cast are set against a backdrop of the theater — creating a perfect stage for this tale of finding one's way amid an unscripted life. Even reluctant readers will keep turning pages to see if all's well that ends well." — BookPage

From the Publisher

Throughout the school year, budding actress June "Junebug" Cantrell feels like a fish out of water. Summers, however, are different. Working as a stagehand at the Blue Moon Playhouse, a theater run by her actor/director father, Junebug usually basks in the company of grownups "who think I'm this funny, precocious, mature-for-my-age kid." Unfortunately, the Blue Moon becomes less a refuge than a source of trauma the summer Junebug turns 13. Her father goes "totally gaga" over a pretty, young actress; her mother moves out; and Junebug is upstaged by intern Trace, whose odd behavior and soft stutter get on her nerves. Alternating Junebug's fantasies ("Here's how I see it: As a famous Broadway actress, there are so many demands on my time") with her more mundane reality ("Here's how it is: Office Duty"), Henson (Making the Run) creates a funny, bittersweet story filled with colorful personalities and plenty of backstage detail and drama. Readers will empathize with Junebug as she yearns for a place at center stage and for a happy ending for her broken family. Ages 10-14. (Apr.)

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Publishers Weekly

Henson's fresh first-person narrative set at a small-town summer-stock theater moves along breezily even as it imparts some fascinating stage history. For almost-13-year-old June Cantrell, aka Junebug, future Broadway star, the highlight of her year has always been helping her theatrical parents put together their productions at the Blue Moon Playhouse, but this summer nothing is the same. Her mother, a talented costume designer, has left to stay with Mama Duvall at her house on the other side of the farm, while her father, a brilliant actor and director, flirts with the gorgeous leading lady. Moreover, Junebug's self-absorbed older sister, Stella, has assumed the ingenue roll in their production of The Tempest, now that she's 16, leaving poor Junebug to engineer the thunder, be the backstage gofer and show the new, stuttering, know-it-all apprentice the ropes. "I am in mourning for my life." Junebug repeats the first line of The Seagull like a mantra, just one of her many histrionic gestures. She is not always likable, though Henson's work possesses a gutsy authenticity. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews