Dara Palmer’s Major Drama by Emma Shevah

Abstract

Reviewed by: Dara Palmer’s Major Drama by Emma Shevah Amy Atkinson Shevah, Emma Dara Palmer’s Major Drama. Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2016 [288p] illus. ISBN 978-1-4926-3138-5 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 3-5 When she’s passed over for the role of Maria—or any role, for that matter—in her London school’s production of The Sound of Music, fifth-grader Dara Palmer suspects it’s because she doesn’t look the part, since she was adopted from Cambodia as a baby. Not getting cast is just one of her struggles, as her chatty first-person narration dishes on the classmate who calls her “Noodlehead” while throwing noodles at her, her battles with her sister who, though also adopted, fits in better with the family in every way, and her struggle to decide whether or not to visit Cambodia and all the feelings about being adopted that such an opportunity would stir up. These weighty issues provide the reader with a tentative and much needed connection to the shallow Dara, who begins the book with such self-indulgence and unfounded conceitedness that it’s difficult to stick around as she reveals her depths. While she does grow over the course of the novel, largely due to the acting class she decides to take, her meaningful realizations about herself, her family, adoption, and acting are often immediately undercut. This is an easygoing entry into serious subjects, though, and doodles in the vein of Wimpy Kid add appeal. Dara occasionally amuses, and issues around microaggressions and adoption offer “a teaspoonful,” as Dara would say, of heart. Copyright © 2016 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois