Lola Levine: Drama Queen

Lola Levine: Drama Queen

Written by: Monica Brown
Illustrated by: Angela Dominguez 
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Grades: 3-5
Awards: Bluebonnet Award

Lola Levine is known for being dramatic, the loud one, and the soccer team captain in her class. The school gets a new drama teacher, named Ms. Tinkle. Lola happened to embarrass Ms. Tinkle in front of her classmates because of her last name. One of Lola's classmates, Alyssa, is really mean to Lola and call her weird in front of the class as much as she can. Lola is also preparing herself to audition for the school play, as she wants to be the big star. It is the day of auditions, but Lola freezes up on stage, forgetting her lines of Dolores Huerta. Alyssa and her best friend even felt sorry for Lola for not even getting through her lines. Josh, Lola's best friend tries to make her feel better by playing soccer together. Once the roles for the play were posted, Lola started to cry and did not feel important as she got the role of squirrel #2. It is the day before the big play and Lola's grandma decided to surprise Lola and the family by visiting, just so she can see Lola act. It is the day of the play and once Lola walks in an hour early, Ms. Tinkle inform Lola that she needs to play squirrel #1 as the actor got the flu. Lola had only an hour to memorize squirrel #1 lines before the show began. Once the show started, the play started off well, but in the middle, Lola got her squirrel tail caught underneath the tree prop. Lola had to improvise since no one was able to help her. Lola tugged her tail out causing her pants to rip in the middle. Lola's grandma came in the rescue by giving her scarf to Lola to cover herself. Once Lola's scene was over, everyone gave her a loud applause and Ms. Tinkle was proud of the improv Lola did. Before Lola's grandma left, she reminded Lola that she is not dramatic as she comes from a family of drama queens, just like her grandma.

This was a great book to read and would be a great addition in a classroom library. This book would be best for third to fifth graders. To incorporate this book, I would have my students write about what they would do if they were caught in the situation of Lola, being squirrel #1 and ripping her pants. This book would also be great to read during book club.