Star-Crossed

Mattie loves books and is delighted when her class begins preparing Romeo and Juliet. Being cast as Romeo gives the production a different significance: Gemma, the new girl she admires, will be Juliet. Rehearsals make Mattie increasingly aware that her interest in Gemma goes beyond friendship, even though she recently had a crush on a boy. Sorting out those feelings proves harder than learning lines, especially as backstage relationships grow complicated. Barbara Dee’s middle-grade novel follows an eighth grader discovering that attraction does not have to follow the categories she expected. The school play offers a stage for Mattie to begin making choices in her own life.