Dara is a 12-year-old, Cambodian girl with a big dream: she wants to become an actress. When her school announces auditions for The Sound of Music, she is over the moon and believes that she should get the lead role of “Maria”. Even though she does her very best, she doesn’t get the part and she thinks that she didn’t get it because of the way she looks. When Dara was a baby she was adopted by the Palmer family in England. However, this is not the reason her teacher, Miss Snelling, doesn’t chose her for the lead role. Dara over-acts as she thinks that acting is all about making faces. Initially she feels that she’s too good for drama school but she’s clever enough to realise that she needs coaching, or she’ll never get an acting role.
I really empathise with Dara because I know what it means to want something really bad. Her high opinion of her acting skills is really funny as she can only do extreme facial expressions (Disney Channel type). However she’s also very funny when she comes down to earth with a bump. For example, this is how she feels when she’s not cast for any of the major roles:
I still wasn’t breathing so I was technically dead but now I was dead and having a heart attack (which you’d think was impossible, but I managed it).
Nevertheless unstoppable Dara finds a way for her creative personality to shine, to get to know herself better and to do some growing up. The fact that she doesn’t give up makes me like her even more.
Another reason why this is a really good book for me is that it is about an adopted girl who looks different from the rest of her family. I have a very good friend who has been adopted and everyone can tell from the way she looks. It has never been a problem for me but this book has helped me to understand her better. I guess like Dara my friend must sometimes be curious about her past and her biological parents. At the same time she’s such a lucky girl to have her adoptive parents. I may be recommending this book to her. Perhaps it’ll be good for her.
The pace of the book is just right and as a reader you want to keep turning the pages and find out whether Dara will reach her dream. My favourite part of the book is the ending but I don’t want to give any spoilers away. Furthermore, the illustrations by Helen Crawford-White make the book more funny and interesting. Sometimes they make you feel as if you are reading someone’s personal diary.
Finally, I really enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend it for boys and girls (9-12 years old) that feel that they don’t fit in or have friends that feel like that. If I were to give it a mark of 1-10, I would give it a big 9!
- Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
