Fans of Georgia Nicolson will be thrilled to meet her cousin Tallulah in Printz Honor–winner Rennison’s new madcap melodrama.
Fourteen-year-old Tallulah Casey is headed to summer theatre school in Yorkshire armed with nothing more than a good-luck letter from Cousin Georgia and sheer determination to become a star. Because other than a penchant for breaking into Riverdance whenever she gets nervous, Tallulah has no talent to speak of. Desperate to impress her teachers in order to win a permanent spot at Dother Hall, Tallulah choreographs a bicycle ballet called “Sugar Plum Bikey,” which unfortunately ends up having the opposite effect and the added bonus of spraining her ankle. Meanwhile, she’s also nursing crushes on three local boys: older Alex, bad boy Cain and sweetheart Charlie. It is almost summer’s end before Tallulah gets kissed and discovers that her talent might be making people laugh. But is being funny enough for Tallulah to be asked back after her fake-moustache–twirling turn as Heathcliff in the final summer production? Though some of Tallulah’s Briticisms may be confusing to American readers, her utterly hilarious glossary in the back will help. “The Bronte Sisters: Em, Chazza, and Anne…they wrote Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and loads of other stuff about terrible weather conditions and moaning. But in a good way.”
Rennison’s writing remains reliably, undeniably entertaining; Georgia would be pleased. (Fiction. 12 & up)
