Starring Me

Gr 7-11–Former reality show contestant and aspiring actress Kara McKormick, 17, has been chosen to participate in a monthlong audition to star in a new teen variety show with a secret celebrity cohost. The contestants are to live together while, unknown to them, their characters and religious qualities are being assessed as much as their acting abilities. Kara does not know that her potential costar is Chad Beacon, the America’s Next Star winner, whom she can’t stop thinking about since she met him at the White House with her friend Addy, who is in a relationship with the president’s son. Chad is enamored of Kara, but because she is not a Christian, he can’t see a future with her. Chad’s devoted family assistant, Flora, goes undercover as the housemother to evaluate the girls’ potential for the variety show and as a potential friend for Chad, and the relationship Kara forms with her is central to the plot development. Many people will root for Kara’s conversion to Christianity and watch it unfold in an organic way. This story is well paced and easy to read. Scripts from Kara’s many auditions are included. In general, this novel provides moral guidelines for youngsters in an increasingly reality-TV-filled world. The “Reading Group Guide” in the back matter states that the book is “loosely based on the story of Isaac and Rebekah in Genesis 24.”–Danielle Farinacci, Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, San Francisco, CA