Overview
SERIES LAUNCH! The full story of a junior high musical production, told exclusively from the POV of the kids backstage. It’s High School Musical, from behind the scenes…without the high school. Every cast depends on its stage crew. But what happens when they hate each other? SETTING THE STAGE is the first act in a trilogy that tells the whole story! Eighth grader Ella Amani has been waiting her whole life to be the stage manager of the middle school musical, and this is her year! Somehow she'll have to find jobs for Willow, who's doing stage crew instead of detention, and Sebastian, a shy sixth grader whose sister is the star of the show. She'll have to wrangle Kevin, the clumsy new kid who was homeschooled on a boat, and Levi, her best friend, who used to tell her everything. Still, Ella's pretty sure she can handle the crew. The cast? That's a different story. They're ungrateful, they treat the crew like servants, and when Ella finally pushes back, they start playing pranks! Setting the Stage is a behind-the-scenes look at the drama of drama club from the crew's point of view. A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
Full Product Details
Author: Lindsay Champion
Publisher: Pixel+Ink
Imprint: Pixel+Ink
Volume: 1
Dimensions:
Width: 14.60cm
, Height: 2.00cm
, Length: 21.70cm
Weight: 0.306kg
ISBN: 9781645953289
ISBN 10: 1645953289
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 21 October 2025
Recommended Age: From 10 to 14 years
Audience:
Children/juvenile
,
Children / Juvenile
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Availability: Not yet available
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.
Reviews
The Broadway references, technical details, backstage dynamics, and crew hierarchy feel authentic and will delight drama kids, and the cliffhanger ending will leave them eager for the next installment. ` —Kirkus Reviews A major cliff-hanger will ensure readers anticipate the next installment. . . .A plucky, engaging series debut that will resonate with theater-loving tweens. Perfect for middle school collections where Wicked is the musical du jour. —School Library Journal Theater fans are sure to devour the theatrics on and off the stage. —Booklist
The Broadway references, technical details, backstage dynamics, and crew hierarchy feel authentic and will delight drama kids, and the cliffhanger ending will leave them eager for the next installment. ` —Kirkus Reviews
Author Information
Lifelong theater geek Lindsay Champion made her stage debut as a tiger in her second-grade musical. Since then, she's built sets, run the light board, operated the spotlight and (her favorite) stage managed. She is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and was the Features Editor at Broadway.com. She is the author of the YA novel Someday, Somewhere.
