Published: 2020
Series: Companion to This Is Just a Test
Author: Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Genres: Realistic Fiction, Middle Grade, Historical Fiction, Jewish, Childrens, Fiction, Friendship
Audience (Grade Levels): Middle Grade; Grades 5-8
Number of Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5 Stars)
Goodreads Link: Not Your All-American Girl
Triggers: Anti-Asian racism
Review By: Jenna Ballard
Publisher’s Summary:
A multicultural story full of heart and hilarity about what it means to be all-American.
Lauren and her best friend, Tara, have always done absolutely everything together. So when they don’t have any classes together in sixth grade, it’s disastrous. The solution? Trying out for the school play. Lauren, who loves to sing, wonders if maybe, just maybe, she will be the star instead of Tara this time.
But when the show is cast, Lauren lands in the ensemble, while Tara scores the lead role. Their teacher explains: Lauren just doesn’t look the part of the all-American girl. What audience would believe that she, half-Jewish, half-Chinese Lauren, was the everygirl star from Pleasant Valley, USA? From amidst the ensemble, Lauren tries to support her best friend. But when she can’t bring herself to sing anymore, her spot in the play and her friendship are in jeopardy. With the help of a button-making business, the music of Patsy Cline, and her two bickering grandmothers, can Lauren find her voice again? Acclaimed coauthors Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan-Long Shang return to the 1980s world of Sydney Taylor Honor Book This Is Just a Test with this laugh-out-loud coming-of-age story.
Review:
What a charming, heartwarming story! The authors tackle some incredibly important and serious subjects: racism, microaggressions, stereotyping, and more, handling them all with care while still producing an overall lighthearted story that is a joy to read. Young readers will root for Lauren and relate to her feelings of jealousy, insecurity, and wanting to fit in. Young readers of color will appreciate Lauren’s struggles as the only half-Jewish, half-Chinese girl in her primarily white school in the 1980s, and young white readers may find their eyes opened to a perspective they had not considered before.
Fitting for a novel about a school musical, the cast of characters is an ensemble of authentic voices. From Lauren’s classmates and teachers to her family–especially my favorite, her hilarious bickering grandmothers–every character adds something special to the narrative. It’s a timeless story that could absolutely happen today, but tons of music and pop culture references evoke the 1980s setting–though the year is only explicitly stated once, so young students who aren’t familiar with, say, Sixteen Candles, may not fully grasp the time period. Regardless, this is absolutely one I will be book-talking and promoting heavily to my students in the fall.
Classroom & Curricular Connections:
- Social Studies & History: Serves as an entry point for studying multi-ethnic histories in America and 1980s cultural history, using the book’s pop-culture backdrop to contrast historical attitudes against modern conversations about diversity.
- Social Emotional Learning (SEL): Highly relevant for lessons on intersectional identity development, managing microaggressions, overcoming feelings of performance jealousy, and building healthy interpersonal boundaries between best friends.
- Theater Arts & Media Literacy: Offers a direct framework to analyze the ethics of casting choices, traditional typecasting, systemic bias in theater production, and what it truly means to represent an “all-American everygirl.”
Extension Activity / Library Application:
- “All-American Everygirl” Media Critique: Have students research contemporary or historical media imagery of the “All-American” archetype. Prompt them to design a multi-ethnic, modernized magazine cover or theatrical poster showcasing an authentic, inclusive representation of American youth today.
- 1980s Time-Capsule Playlist: Because the text utilizes massive musical and film hallmarks of the 1980s (like Patsy Cline and period cinema references), have students build a historical or thematic playlist that represents Lauren’s emotional journey through the play, detailing how historical art influences identity.
Diversity & Representation Note:
This ownvoices story highlights essential intersectional representation by centering on a protagonist who is both Chinese American and Jewish. It skillfully breaks open the monolithic treatment of Asian American characters by portraying the lived warmth and occasional humor of navigating blended ancestral dynamics—illustrated through her bickering grandmothers—while validating the painful, subtle realities of institutional stereotyping and microaggressions in majority-white spaces.
Readalikes:
- Stand Up, Yumi Chung by Jessica Kim
- Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina
- Lupe Wong Won’t Dance by Donna Barba Higuera
