Upstaged

A shy seventh grader learns to step into the spotlight in this heartwarming middle-grade novel Shira Gordon is painfully shy.

She rarely speaks and blushes at everything. But Shira has a secret. Alone in her room, she’ll sing and dance for hours, dreaming she were different.

So when her best (and only) friend forces her to audition for their school’s production of The Music Man, she’s mostly hoping she’ll get the flu . . . but a teeny part of her hopes she’ll get in. And she does! As a member of the barbershop quartet. Playing a dude with a mustache is not exactly her dream role, but Shira is surprised by how much she loves rehearsing with her quirky new friends.

When her teacher asks her to understudy the lead role, Marian the Librarian, she reluctantly accepts. It’s not easy to understudy Monica Manley, an eighth-grade diva who will not be upstaged. And things get even more complicated when a mysterious prankster starts playing tricks on Monica and Shira’s crush joins the cast.

But something keeps Shira going: Marian herself. Marian might be the leading lady, but she’s also misunderstood, lonely . . . and shy. And if a star can be shy, then maybe, just maybe, a shy person can be a star.