Fame

Eve wants to be famous. She wants to be seen and heard, not just by adoring fans, but also by her parents. She also really wants the lead role in her middle school production of Cabaret. When she doesn't get the part, she learns a lesson or two in humility. When she's on stage, Eve can shine, lose track of time, and be someone else. But how can she do that if she's not the star? With a cast varied in talent and attitude - a shy leading lady whose performance has to be coaxed out of her, a snotty girl who has her eye on the lead, an overweight class clown, a jock, and many more players, including Eve's best friends helping out behind the scenes as stage manager and pianist, and Eve doubting her own abilities and importance in what she thinks is a small part - rehearsals can be difficult, to say the least. Mariah Fredericks has written an entertaining, enjoyable book with a realistic protagonist. Eve can be confident and self-assured one moment only to pull back the next. She is easily distracted from her studies and would rather be on stage than sitting at her desk. She makes both good and bad choices and has to deal with what she's done, for better or for worse. She's not a perfect student, and she's not a perfect performer. She is selfish at times, and her stubborn streak is a mile wide. She may have to get her ego in check sometimes, but she's never conceited. Like Mr. Courtney, the play's director, Fredericks pushes her protagonist and lets her yell, scream, cry, get mad, get upset, and get embarrassed. The fights that Eve has with her parents will ring (true) in readers' ears, especially adult who have been on both sides of that battle as both the parent and the kid. Give In the Cards: Fame to the future stars that you know and love. Note that this is the second book in the In the Cards trilogy. Grab up the other books, In the Cards: Love and In the Cards: Life. Also get Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen by Dyan Sheldon and Dramarama by E. Lockhart while you're at it.

"I want big-time, bright-lights, major, mondo success. I want to be one of those people you see at awards shows, the ones who win so many Grammys and Moonmen and nobody's even jealous because it's obvious they were so much better...I reach for the cards..." - From the book The second book from the In the Cards series--Fame--deals with Eve Baylor's burning desire to become famous. Although she partly wants to consult the Tarot cards Mrs. Rosemont left to her friend Anna, Eve feels apprehensive about inquiring about future fame. What if the cards tell her she'll always be a loser...a nobody? What if she misinterprets the cards and sabotages her destiny of stardom? When Mr. Courtney, the theater teacher at her school, decides to put on a production of Cabaret, Eve has mixed feelings. But when she finds out that Peter McElroy, the famous judge of the hit show You Suck! and father of her classmate Francesca will be there, Eve anxiously wonders if this is her chance to make it big. Dealing with the topics of ambition, cliques, peer pressure, self worth, family dynamics and bigotry, In the Cards: Fame takes readers on a journey fraught with pre-teen angst, self-doubt, jealousy, anger and embarrassment. Many characters from In the Cards: Love play a part in this second installment, with two of them vying for Anna's affection! Syd, who goes to different school from Anna and Eve, is corralled in the Cabaret production. Tempers flare when egos get out of control and someone has had enough of the pettiness and cruelty during rehearsals. Eve eventually does a Tarot reading to see if she'll become famous, and the subsequent chapters are heralded by one card from the spread (a Tarot layout). As in the first book, In the Cards: Fame stays true to common Rider-Waite imagery and interpretation; in fact, the beginning of the book shows all ten cards laid out in a Celtic Cross spread (though the name of the spread isn't mentioned). The author, Mariah Fredericks, doesn't dumb down Tarot (reversed cards show up in the spread that the girls lay out), but neither does she complicate the cards. Who will get the lead part of Sally Bowles? What of Declan Kelso...and Nelson Kobliner? Will Francesca's "connections" get her a part....even if she might lack talent? What of Uber-Cool snob Alexa and her sycophant friend, Marnie? And what happens when Eve's grades begin to slip...will her parents make her give up her dream? If you enjoyed In the Cards: Love, In the Cards: Fame is even better, in my opinion. Ms. Frederick's characters ring true, as always, and the believability factor evokes feelings ranging from sadness to frustration, indignation to jubilation. Aimed at students ages 10-14 (Grades 5-9), the In the Cards series is a fine introduction to Tarot for those intrigued by such topics, as well as an accurate depiction of what happens in schools, behind backs, and inside the heads of `tweens and young teens. However, as in the first book, they are incidents of g