August 8, 2022
Gentle humor buoys personal growth in this character-driven novel of filmmaking and found family by Starmer (the Locker 37 series). Twelve-year-old Vermonter Brewster Gaines, serial loner and aspiring director, yearns to go viral with the YouTube videos he creates. After a rare moment of cooperation with a classmate, skater Carly Lee, results in solid content, he realizes that it has the potential to garner his desired “million views”—if only it had the appropriate resources. Then Carly’s privileged friend Rosa signs on as producer, ushering in a growing squad of collaborators, and the project is granted a $5,000 budget, a deadline, and a new life as trailer for yet-unmade film Carly Lee and the Land of Shadows. To the discomfort of control-conscious Brewster, the team grows to include costume-savvy Godfrey Tarkington and his production manager sister Isolde, half-Tanzanian special effects whiz Harriet Joseph, and eager assistant Liam Wentworth. Wryly narrated in the third person and filled with believable, intriguing characters, the narrative twines an in-depth look at the filmmaking process with a rift brewing in Brewster’s largely detached family, astutely developing the filmmaker’s relationship with his quietly supportive nonbinary sibling and his increasingly tight-knit crew. Most characters default to white. Ages 10–up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.
