AGE GUIDES: these are approximate recommendations:
Middle Grade - ages 8-12
REVIEWERS: Naomi Lesley
* denotes San Diego writer and/or illustrator
** Age levels, when provided by the publishers, are included in
the bibliographical information. Otherwise, category placements
are our best approximations.
Chanda, Justin, ed.Acting Out. New
York: Athenaeum Books, 2008. ISBN: 978-1-4169-3848-4. US $16.99/$19.99
CAN. Ages 8-12.
Chanda, Justin,
ed. Acting Out. New York: Athenaeum Books, 2008. ISBN:
978-1-4169-3848-4. US $16.99/$19.99 CAN. Ages 8-12.
Six Newbery Award winning authors--Avi, Susan Cooper, Sharon Creech,
Patricia MacLaughlan, Katherine Paterson, and Richard Peck—have
each contributed a one-act play to this collection. Each author
chose a word (samples include “dollop” and “knuckleball”),
and each author had to use all six words in each play. The plays
range widely in topic; Susan Cooper creates an environmental morality
tale, Richard Peck relates the story of shenanigans in a one-room
schoolhouse, and Katherine Paterson retells the Hans Christian Anderson
fairy tale “The Nightingale.” Each play includes production
notes from the author which provide suggestions for how to solve
technical difficulties which children might encounter in production
(such as how to portray an animate boulder on stage).
There are a variety of characters in this collection which dramatically
minded children will enjoy acting out, and enough variety to satisfy
different tastes. Paterson’s reconstruction of the Anderson
fairy tale is tightly constructed and combines humor and pathos,
and MacLaughlan’s story of the “bad kids” stuck
in detention is warmly sympathetic and uplifting. Acting Out
would be a useful addition to classroom libraries; teachers
will find the short plays useful as a manageable and accessible
introduction to drama.
