Julia has other insights, like the fact that she doesn't grow much and doesn't need new clothes too often so she can get attached to pieces of clothing and outfits and wear them again and again like a cartoon character.

Chang, will be winged monkeys.Īs she looks through these scrapbooks and is not happy with all the saved memories or lack thereof, Julia realizes that 'the person who does the work gets to write history,' and she decides to keep her own scrapbook of the summer ahead. Fortunately, although reluctantly, Shawn Barr agrees and Julia gets a second role in the performance.

In exchange for her costume creations, including winged monkey costumes, Mrs. Chang, who lives in a house filled with her amazing creations and who also is a gifted costumer with a secret wish. Julia also befriends an elderly neighbor, Mrs. Olive is a dwarf, and, besides being friendly to her, she shows Julia that height isn't everything. And, when he notices her taking initiative, he appoints her 'lead Munchkin dancer.' Julia also befriends Olive, one of the handful of professional adult performers hired on for the show. Soon enough, Julia is impressing Shawn Barr, who has directed shows on Broadway and, 'had work run on the West End,' and has just arrived from directing dinner theater in Pigeon Forge, TN. Her musings about the play also serve as a well-crafted introduction to theater terminology and convey drama’s ability to open participants up to new experiences.Looking forward to a summer during which she will do a whole lot of nothing, Julia is sad when her two best friends leave town and even less happy when her mother signs Julia and her younger brother up to audition at the university for a play. Sloan combines Julia’s interior monologue with events in real time to create a winning portrait of an inquisitive white adolescent girl whose shrewd observations of family members and cast mates reveal a keen mind and a delightfully quirky sense of humor. Chang, a costuming genius, and Olive, an adult cast mate who is her exact size, help transform Julia’s summer from one of grudging obligation into an inspirational experience that enables her to put her own insecurities into perspective.

Chance friendships with her neighbor Mrs. Her outlook changes, however, when her mother forces her to audition for the local university’s summer-theater production of The Wizard of Oz, in which she is cast as the lead Munchkin dancer. Always considered short for her age, Julia is used to being picked last for sports teams in school, even by her closest friends, and is self-conscious enough of her height that she never uses the dreaded S-word. “Julia Marks is taking readers somewhere over the rainbow and embarking on a summer of self-discovery.

Short book by holly goldberg sloan