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Description
When Zander's play "Act Six" puts Da Vinci Academy in the spotlight, LaShonda's costume designs finally get the attention they deserve. An exciting opportunity arises, but accepting it means leaving behind her autistic brother and their group home. This middle-grade story follows LaShonda as she navigates an impossible choice between her dreams and her family.
Quick Summary
If you're looking for a middle-grade read that actually tackles some big feelings without feeling heavy-handed, this one's for you. The story centers on LaShonda, whose brother lives in a group home, and when she gets a chance to pursue her costume design dreams, she's torn between seizing the opportunity and staying close to family and Myers handles that tension with real care and no easy answers. Set against the backdrop of a school play, there's plenty of the fun, messy energy that comes with middle school productions, but underneath it all runs something much deeper about loyalty and what "family" really means. Walter Dean Myers had a gift for writing characters who feel like real kids you'd actually know, not textbook examples of whatever issue the book is "about," and this one shows that off beautifully. It's a quick read at around 26,000 words, so it'll work for reluctant readers, but the emotional payoff is genuinely satisfying, which is rarer than it should be in books at this level. If you've enjoyed other stories with diverse casts or books like "The Secret Life of Lincoln Jones" that balance humor with real heart, this fits right in that tradition of stories that don't talk down to their audience.