Take It from the Top, Claire Swinarski
Take It from the Top, Claire Swinarski
List: $23.99 | Sale: $16.79
Club: $11.99

Take It from the Top

Author: Claire Swinarski

Narrator: Emily Lawrence, Hope Newhouse

Unabridged: 6 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/19/2024


Synopsis

Set at a camp over the course of six summers, this novel dives into the falling-out of two girls from different backgrounds who thought they'd be friends forever...until a production of Wicked brings all their buried issues to the surface. Claire Swinarski, Edgar Award nominee of the ALA Notable What Happened to Rachel Riley?, tackles privilege, perspective, and the power of friendship in this page-turning puzzle that readers will devour. Eowyn Becker has waited all year to attend her sixth summer at Lamplighter Lake Summer Camp. Here, the pain of her mom’s death can’t reach her, and she gets to reunite with her best friend, Jules Marrigan—the only person in the world who understands her. To top it off, Wicked—the girls' favorite musical—has been chosen for the camp's end-of-year production. If anyone can be Glinda to Eowyn's Elphaba, it's Jules!But when Eowyn arrives at camp, everything seems wrong. The best-friend reunion Eowyn had been dreaming of doesn’t go as planned. Jules will barely even look at Eowyn, let alone talk to her, and Eowyn has no idea why.Well, maybe she does…There are two sides to every story, and if you want to understand this one, you’ll need to hear both. Told in a series of alternating chapters that dip back to past summers, the girls’ story will soon reveal how Eowyn and Jules went from being best friends to fierce foils. Can they mend ways before the curtains close on what was supposed to be the best summer of their lives?

About Claire Swinarski

Claire Swinarski was born and raised in Wisconsin, where she still lives with her family and writes stories for readers of all ages. What Happens Next was her debut middle grade novel and was followed by The Kate in Between and What Happened to Rachel Riley, which was an ALA Notable Children’s Book, a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults title, a Cybils Award nominee, and an Edgar Award nominee. These were followed by Take It from the Top and Each and Every Spark. Claire believes wandering around a library can solve 95 percent of life’s problems.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Faith

I absolutely loved this story! Eowyn and Jules are both wonderful and wonderfully-crafted characters. I wish I could be friends with both of them…and still I found myself ready to smack both of them at various points throughout the story (okay, so I was a little invested). Like all of Claire Swinark......more

Goodreads review by Laura

Claire Swinarski writes books that feel absolutely custom made for me. In this story, we meet two musical theater loving teens who live for their summers at theater camp and share a dream of playing Glinda and Elphaba in Wicked. That is, until the summer that Wicked is actually scheduled to be on th......more

Goodreads review by Kathryn

Make that 4.5 stars. I love a well written middle grade book. Oh the drama! In the book and with the girls. It was just the right amount and Claire touched on so many things - the complexity of friendship, grief, death of a parent, anxiety, counseling and love. It just all, worked. Brava for another......more

Goodreads review by Laura

Great! My (theater/camp obsessed) daughter is going to love this one (she’s a big fan of Rachel Riley, too!). Love the summer camp angle and the two main characters. I wish Eowyn’s smartphone at camp wasn’t a thing…that’s my only gripe w this book.......more