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Teodora's Book Reviews: “Star Makers Club - Phoebe finds her Voice” by Anne-Marie Conway





“Star Makers Club – Phoebe finds her Voice” by Anne-Marie Conway is a story about a really talented girl called Phoebe. There are some problems in her life, though: Polly Carter, an enemy, Monty B, her annoying, but strangely funny neighbor, and, most of all, Dad, living in another flat with his job gone and with spending time at a club...
I liked the way Phoebe introduced herself (“My name’s Phoebe, by the way, Phoebe Franks, and I’m nearly twelve years old.”). This story starts with the Star Makers Club. At the beginning, Phoebe said, “I don’t even want to join the club. I’m going to karate lessons on Saturdays so I won’t have time anyway.” This made me sad, but I knew Phoebe would go to the Star Makers Club after all. I could just feel it! I went on reading the pages when I got to this part: “I laid down on my bed and stared up at my favorite poster of Donny Dallesio. Donny stretched his arm out of the poster – yes, right out of it – and gave me a thumbs up.” When I read this part, I felt that something would change or happen. I sometimes like to say something to the characters when I read a book. I started to say, “Come on, Phoebe! Give it a chance and go to the Star Makers Club!”, all alone in my room, lying on my bed, with the book in front of me. I was so happy when I read this: “I went downstairs and told Mum that I did want to join Star Makers Drama Club after all.”
I just liked it when happy moments were going on. The Star Makers Drama Club turned out really good (well, almost good). Phoebe is in a really nice play called “The Dream Factory”. At first, I thought it was going to be an old, boring play, but it turned out to be a cool and funny play...
Let’s forget a bit about happiness and Star Makers Drama Club... In this story, there are also some sad moments. I don’t know why, but most of these moments, which bring suspense, make me very agitated. For example, this sentence made me think for a while: “I could see Mum was cross, but I knew how much Dad was missing his job at the nursery.” I thought of these questions: “Will ever Mum and Dad be together again?”; “Why did they divorce?”; “How could Phoebe manage all this fighting between Mum and Dad?” During the story, I found the answers to my questions: 1) Yes, in the end, Mum and Dad are together. 2) Mum and Dad divorced because Dad lost his job and started to go to a strange club called “Life Centre”. 3) Phoebe just went in her room and practiced for the show, trying to forget about the fight between her parents.
In this book, Phoebe just tells us, the readers, about Polly Carter. She tells her name for a billion times, just like she is really a pest on Phoebe’s mind. When I read those paragraphs (“Maybe I was born to be on the stage – but that was before Polly Carter decided to ruin my life.” and “My "favorite" person in the Whole Entire Universe – Polly Carter.” I got a bit angry. Why was Phoebe talking on and on about Polly Carter, her worst enemy? I had a relief when Phoebe and Polly started to talk to each other like friends and didn’t fight anymore...
I don’t know what other readers may think, but I simply like to find similarities between two things completely different. I was happy when I found this similarity between an old recipe used in a family tradition and a magic recipe which uses ingredients to give us a sweet dream (“Gran got busy measuring out little pots of raisins and sultans and almonds and mixed peel and grated carrot and apple – like a Sweet Dreamer in the factory, sorting out all the ingredients for a really sweet dream.”).
Well, this story ends with Phoebe singing the best solo ever sung (without having a stage fright at “The Dream Factory” show). Her parents lived together again (as I told you) and, well... everything turns out very fine, that’s all! I like Phoebe’s ending: “Something did happen to me that day – and it did change my life. For ever.”
I liked “Star Makers Club – Phoebe finds her Voice” by Anne-Marie Conway because it’s a warm-hearted story about the triumphs and traumas at the Star Makers Drama Club – a special place where everyone has their moment to shine! :)

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