Rebecca and the Movies

Rebecca, who dreams of being an actress, gets to visit a movie set with her cousin Max, a professional actor. She has only seen one movie in her whole life, but has always been fascinated by them nonetheless. While there, she meets an actress and learns a little bit about how movie makeup is applied, and about lighting, props, and early special effects. This is a fun book in Rebecca's series because there really isn't much of anything too serious in it; it takes a look at the history of movie entertainment, and educates about how Jewish immigrants really contributed to it. Without attempting any spoilers, I was surprised that Rebecca could do something that happens in this book without any consultation of her parents--who probably would have said "no!" It seems a bit out of character that they let her go to a movie set when they were not willing to let her go to the movies so recently before. Yet it is definitely believable that Rebecca, who is completely enchanted with movies, would grab at the opportunity presented to her. This book is reminiscent of the now-obscure children's book _Miranda and the Movies_, which takes place in 1914. It contains stronger language, but older readers who want to learn more information about movie-making in this era in a fictional backdrop may like that tale as well.