Setting the Stage
Candlewick Press · Hardcover · October 21, 2025
SERIES LAUNCH!
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- Who it’s for
- A school musical looks different when the crew gets the point of view.
- Genres
- Theater Stories, Friendship, Growing Up
- Published
- Candlewick Press, October 21, 2025
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Start with this bookAbout this book
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!
Continue reading
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
Offstage Drama
A school musical looks different when the crew gets the point of view.
Come here for
- Backstage theater life, far from the spotlight
- The frictions and friendships of a middle-school crew
Expect
- Drama club seen from the stage crew’s side
- A school-show atmosphere with pranks and shifting friendships
Where it sits
| Theater Stories | 99% |
|---|---|
| Friendship | 67% |
| Growing Up | 64% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Theater Stories
- Growing Up
- Friendship
- Authors
- Lindsay Champion
- Publisher
- Candlewick Press
- Published
- October 21, 2025
- Format
- Hardcover
- Reading lane
- Theater Stories