Review: Not Your All-American Girl
Not Your All-American Girl by Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan-Long Shang Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz In 2017, Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan-Long Shang came out with This is Just a Test , the story of David Da Wei Horowitz, a 12-year-old, half-Jewish, half-Chinese boy, set in the 1980s. Now, in 2020, the authors have written Not Your All-American Girl , the story of David’s younger sister, Lauren. In Not Your All-American Girl , Lauren faces friendship hiccups and the thinly veiled prejudice of her school drama teacher. Lauren sings beautifully and kills her audition for the school musical, but her best friend Tara is cast as the lead. The drama teacher tells Lauren that she just doesn’t look like the all-American girl that Tara embodies. Lauren’s musical talent, along with her dark hair and culturally mixed features, land her in the ensemble. Lauren is disappointed and confused, but she ends up making friends with other ensemble members, even as her friendship wi