Read Sam in the Spotlight free for 7 days. £7.99/month after - less than a paperback.
Anne-Marie Conway's Sam in the Spotlight is a drama club story for 10 year olds about a girl who wants the biggest part in the show and has a very big secret to keep.
Sam has only ever wanted one thing. To be on the stage, properly, preferably on Broadway. Mum thinks acting is a hobby and not a Proper Job.
Things at home have gone wrong since her big sister Crystal left, the day after her eighteenth birthday, after THE FIGHT TO END ALL FIGHTS with Mum. Now all of Mum's worry has landed on Sam (her grades, her homework, her A-tti-tude). Dad hides behind the paper, humming. And nobody will tell Sam what the row was even about.
Then an envelope turns up on the mat. It's an invitation to Crystal's wedding. Tucked inside is a note asking Sam not to breathe a word to anyone, especially not Mum and Dad.
Saturday mornings are for Star Makers, where Mandy is putting on a spooky new show about a castle and a missing girl. Sam wants the lead so badly she mentions it about six hundred times. But Mum has other ideas, involving a Saturday tutor and no big parts at all.
Oh, and her best friend Ellie has met a boy on holiday (who is NOT her boyfriend, apparently). And Sam suddenly can't stop blushing whenever Adam from Year Ten looks her way.
Sam tells you everything herself, so you get all of her. The loud mouth, the drama and the bits she isn't proud of, like promising with her fingers crossed behind her back. Who hasn't felt a bit jealous when a best friend suddenly has someone new?
It's properly funny in places too. Sam's detective game at the club. Monty B turning a serious scene into a string of biscuit jokes until Ellie has to be helped off the stage.
But the real pull is Crystal. Sam misses the hot chocolate and the late-night DVDs on the sofa, and watching her try to hold everyone together while sitting on a secret that BIG keeps you turning the pages.
If your reader lives for the school play, or has an older brother or sister they think the world of, this should go down very well. There's plenty of chat about crushes and boyfriends (all very innocent), which suits a reader who's starting to be interested in all that.
Star Makers didn't begin with Sam, though. If they'd like to go back to where it all started, with mysterious yellow leaflets appearing all over Woodville Secondary, try Phoebe Finds Her Voice. It's in the library too.
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