Shine!

by J.J. Grabenstein, Chris Grabenstein

Overview

Everyone deserves to shine in this sparkling book about a girl who's trying to find her place in the universe—and middle school—from the New York Times bestselling author of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library!

Shine on! might be the catchphrase of twelve-year-old Piper's hero—astronaut, astronomer, and television host Nellie Dumont Frisse—but Piper knows the truth: some people are born to shine, and she's just not one of them. That fact has never been clearer than now, when her dad's new job has landed them both at Chumley Prep, a posh private school where everyone seems to be the best at something and where Piper definitely doesn't fit in.

Bursting with humor, heart, science, possibilities, and big questions, Shine! is a story about finding your place in the universe—a story about figuring out who you are and who you want to be. BONUS! Science experiment included!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781524717667
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	11/05/2019
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	650L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

J.J. & CHRIS GRABENSTEIN are a husband-wife team. J.J. is an award-winning voice-over and stage performer. Chris is a New York Times bestselling author of many books, including the Mr. Lemoncello series, as well as the coauthor of numerous books with James Patterson, including Word of Mouse and Max Einstein. J.J. and Chris live in New York City. Visit them online at ChrisGrabenstein.com and on Twitter at @CGrabenstein.

Read an Excerpt

Some people are meant to shine.
 
Others are better off blending in.
 
Me?
 
I’m a blender. But tonight is one of the biggest nights ever for my dad, so I’m here to help.
 
Dad’s singers are onstage at the Municipal Auditorium, waiting for the curtain to rise. I’m off in the wings, dressed in black, trying to disappear.
 
My dad, Marcus Milly, is a music teacher at Fairview Middle School. His a cappella group has finally, for the first time in recorded history, by some sort of miracle, made it all the way to the biggest show in town: the finals of the Winter Sing-Off.
 
The place is packed. The local news crews are here, too, taping reports for their eleven o’clock broadcasts.
 
“The finals!” I hear the reporter from Channel 8 say into a camera. “You can’t get much closer to the big finish than that!”
 
Dad’s group sailed through the first two rounds with their mash-up of “Let It Snow” and “Winter Wonderland,” which, by the way, sounded even better on a stage sparkling with glittery spray-can snow. Now they just have to do one more song for the judges. And they’ll do it without instruments or even a piano because that’s what “a cappella” means. It’s all vocals and schoop-schoops and mouth noises.
 
I don’t go to Fairview. (I’m a seventh grader at Westside.)
 
That’s a good thing.
 
Music is Dad’s life. And even though I’m related to the director, I don’t sing well enough to make the Fairview choir. Or any choir.
 
Because I can’t carry a tune in a lunch box.
 
At home, I don’t even sing in the shower.
 
And we definitely don’t do carpool karaoke.
 
Anyway, like I said, Dad has never come this close to winning the big countywide holiday a cappella contest, and I’ve never been more excited for him.
 
That’s why I volunteered to be his assistant and help out backstage. Dad and his singers are the main attraction. I’m just a moon orbiting their planet.
 
“This is it, Piper,” says Dad, his eyes twinkling with excitement.
 
“You’ve got this!” I tell him.
 
We fist-bump on it.
 
The curtain will go up for everybody’s final songs in seven minutes. I can see other choirs waiting in the wings. Some are in red-and-green outfits. Others in sparkling blue and silver. The backdrop is a row of Christmas trees flanked by a cardboard menorah and a Kwanzaa candle set.
 
Dad’s group is totally focused, doing their vocal warm-ups.
 
“Ah-oh-oo-oh-ah . . .”
 
They limber up their lips with a tongue twister.
 
“Red leather, yellow leather, red leather, yellow leather . . .”
 
Suddenly I hear a cough!
 
Dad twirls around. Now there’s panic in his eyes.
 
One dry throat in the soprano section could ruin everything! That’s exactly what happened at the Nationals last year. Dad and I watched it on YouTube. A coughing fit took down the top team in the country. (A girl up front was hacking so much during “Let It Go” that she sounded like a high-pitched Chihuahua.)
 
“Water, Piper,” Dad says. From the tremor in his voice, I can tell: he remembers that disaster, too.
 
“Room-temperature water!” I add, because my scientific brain knows that room-temperature water is much better for vocal cords than cold or hot.
 
Cold water could actually hurt a singer’s voice—tighten the cords when they need to be loosened. You don’t want hot water, either, because it can cause your pharynx to swell slightly. You should also avoid dairy.
 
I take off, looking for a water dispenser with one of those hot taps for making tea, so I can quickly pour the perfect mix of hot and cold to achieve room temperature. On the far side of the stage, I think I see one.
 
It’s right behind a competing a cappella group.
 
But they’re not doing any last-minute vocal warm-ups.
 
They’re too busy pointing, laughing, and making fun of Dad and his singers!
 
 

Editorial Reviews

09/16/2019

In the married coauthors’ collaborative debut, seventh grader Piper believes that only some people are “meant to shine. Others are better off blending in.” Her mother, who died when Piper was three, was a talented cellist, and her father is a choir director, but Piper herself “can’t carry a tune in a lunch box.” After her dad gets a job at posh Chumley Prep—prompting a transfer for Piper, too, to the school where her mother once excelled—the girl becomes the target of class mean girl Ainsley. When an all-school award with deliberately vague criteria (“excel”) is announced, Piper is sure she has no shot. When she wins the science fair, though, thanks to her interest in astronomy, her friends think she is a front-runner. They work to find Piper something at which she can shine, but she becomes sure she won’t be chosen when outside occurrences (helping a lost kindergartner and a cafeteria worker in need) make her constantly late to class. Whatever the contest’s outcome, the girl’s realization that she has been shining all along is the true victory. This encouraging story of self-discovery celebrates friendship, kindness, and self-actualization, and readers will relate to the realistic middle school dynamic and well-developed characters. Ages 8–12. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

11/01/2019

Gr 4–6—Seventh-grader Piper is heartbroken when she learns that she has to leave her public school and begin mid-year at Chumley Prep, the local independent school. Her father, a choral teacher who dreams of writing Broadway musicals, has been offered a position at Chumley which comes with full tuition for Piper. Since Piper's mother died when she was three, she and her father have supported each other, and Piper knows how important this opportunity is to him. Just as Piper expects, she initially feels out of place and some of the Chumley students are not very welcoming—especially Ainsley Braden-Hammerschmidt, who tries to sabotage all of Piper's attempts to thrive at her new school. When an award for the student who "most fully demonstrates overall excellence" is announced, some of the students plan strategies to win the anonymous judge's favor. Piper, who shines primarily in science, does not feel confident about winning the award. By the end of the book, Piper has embraced a diverse group of new friends, connected with several teachers, and learned to love her school. VERDICT Piper is likeable and empathetic and the "bad guys," while exaggerated, make this a lighthearted and fast-paced book. The strong message about the power of kindness will be encouraging to readers, and fans of Grabenstein's "Mr. Lemoncello" series will enjoy a different kind of puzzle.—Shelley Sommer, Inly School, Scituate, MA

School Library Journal

2019-08-12
Previously a "blender," Piper Milly finds a way to shine in a school full of would-be stars.

Piper's father's new job is choral director at Chumley Prep, a tony independent school where everyone's an achiever. It comes with full tuition for Piper, who's now able to attend the school where her deceased mother once shone. Feeling out of place and extremely untalented in this new, more competitive world, seventh grader Piper eventually finds friends and discovers that her empathy and willingness to help others make her stellar, too. She even finds it possible to do something nice for the classmate who has made fun of her and her father from their very first encounter. From a characterization standpoint, Piper's enthusiasm for astronomy helps her stand out as a protagonist in this novel about finding one's place in middle school, but her nemesis, Ainsley Braden-Hammerschmidt, is drawn as an all-too-familiar arrogant child of privilege. The puzzle here is more subtle than in some of co-author Chris Grabenstein's previous Mr. Lemoncello books: There's a new prize at Chumley Prep, the Excelsior Award; every student hopes to win it, but no one knows quite how. A subplot involving a teacher who hasn't gotten over her resentment of Piper's mother seems extraneous, but there's plenty of believable dialogue and humor. The cast is default white; Piper's friends have names representative of different cultures and are gratifyingly quirky.

A crowd-pleasing reminder that kindness pays. (Fiction. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews

"Shine! will put a smile on your heart. Read this book!" –Jennifer L. Holm, New York Times bestselling author of The Fourteenth Goldfish

"A crowd-pleasing reminder that kindness pays.” –Kirkus Reviews

“This encouraging story of self-discovery celebrates friendship, kindness, and self-actualization.”—Publishers Weekly

“This gentle book offers a wonderful reminder that kindness, generosity, and love far outweigh the importance of money, awards, and prestige. —Booklist

“A lighthearted and fast-paced book. The strong message about the power of kindness will be encouraging to readers, and fans of Grabenstein’s “Mr. Lemoncello” series will enjoy a different kind of puzzle.” – School Library Journal,

From the Publisher