Confessions of a Hollywood Star » (Reprint)

DYAN SHELDON was born in Brooklyn, New York, and now lives in London. She is the author of many novels for teens, including CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE DRAMA QUEEN, MY PERFECT LIFE, SOPHIE PITT-TURNBULL DISCOVERS AMERICA, PLANET JANET, and PLANET JANET IN ORBIT. She says, "My writing for young adults comes from personal experience. I just make the characters younger. I thought I would outgrow these experiences — but they keep happening."

Dyan Sheldon's comically melodramatic heroine casts her best friend, Ella, in a supporting role as they conspire to land a part in a real-live movie that's filming tantalizingly close to home.

After enduring years of angst, Lola is graduating from high school and finally getting out of Dellwood "Deadwood," New Jersey. She can't wait to move on to bigger and better things — even if it means she'll be studying theater at Brooklyn College and not her dream school, London's prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. But destiny intervenes when Lola learns that a major Hollywood movie is being filmed right there in Dellwood that very summer! Lola wastes no time in telling everyone (including her nemesis, Carla Santini) that she, of course, is going to be in the movie. Now it's just a minor matter of convincing the director to give her a part. Is the Drama Queen ready — and wily enough — to make the leap from the stage to the silver screen?

VOYA

It is the summer after high school graduation, and Lola is ready to move on to the drama program at Brooklyn College, her next stop on the way to Broadway stardom. When a Hollywood movie crew, complete with popular stars and a big-time director, comes to her hometown to shoot a movie, Lola decides that it could be an opportunity for her to show off her dramatic talents. But securing a part is not easy. With friend Ella in tow, Lola tries a variety of ploys-including getting jobs on the housekeeping staff at the inn at which the crew is staying-but her attempts to get noticed end in failure. With some intervention from her boyfriend Sam, Lola finally meets the director, secures a part, and revels in the satisfaction of upstaging her nemesis, Carla Santini. The characters from Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (Candlewick, 1999/VOYA February 2000)and My Perfect Life (2002/VOYA December 2002) appear again, with Lola at her comic best, moving from one hilarious fix to another. The book succeeds in its realistic look at teenage rivalries. Lola's ultimate success demonstrates that there is nothing as sweet as upstaging a rival. The author also sends a message about what it means to be a "true" friend. Lola and Ella not only support one another, but they also accept each other's idiosyncrasies. This entertaining romp is sure to keep readers anxious for another entertaining sequel.