Setting the Stage (Cast vs Crew #1)
Lindsay Champion
Pixel+Ink
Published October 21, 2025
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads
About Setting the Stage
SERIES LAUNCH! The full story of a junior high musical production, told exclusively from the POV of the kids backstage. It’s High School Musical, from behind the scenes…without the high school.
Every cast depends on its stage crew. But what happens when they hate each other? SETTING THE STAGE is the first act in a trilogy that tells the whole story!
Eighth grader Ella Amani has been waiting her whole life to be the stage manager of the middle school musical, and this is her year!
Somehow she’ll have to find jobs for Willow, who’s doing stage crew instead of detention, and Sebastian, a shy sixth grader whose sister is the star of the show. She’ll have to wrangle Kevin, the clumsy new kid who was homeschooled on a boat, and Levi, her best friend, who used to tell her everything.
Still, Ella’s pretty sure she can handle the crew. The cast? That’s a different story. They’re ungrateful, they treat the crew like servants, and when Ella finally pushes back, they start playing pranks!
Setting the Stage is a behind-the-scenes look at the drama of drama club from the crew’s point of view.
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
My Review
The story alternates through four different points of view: Ella, the stage manager, Willow, the unwilling stage crew member serving out a dentention sentence, Sebastian, the younger brother of the musical’s star, and Levi, the technical lead who’s dealing with a challenging family situation.
Having all those points of view pulls the reader deeper into how the crew prepares for the musical while showing different perspectives on each of the characters. For example, Willow thinks of organized, committed Ella as being bossy and uptight at first. What she doesn’t realize is that Ella is good at finding ways for people to use their strengths as part of her team, and this helps Willow invest in her role backstage.
Showing both Levi and Ella’s points of view helps readers see that Ella’s perception of what’s happening with her best friend (a showmance) isn’t the full story. It makes sense that Levi would leave certain things about his past unsaid because of how his relationship with Ella works, and that when the pressure on those parts of his life increases, that leaves him in a hard place.
I feel like readers who are theater-curious will enjoy the behind-the-scenes look at how a stage crew works on putting together a show. It’s also a great middle school relationships story with a dash of romance. The romance angle shows one crush coming to a disappointing end and another ending with plans to go on a date, so even there, the story offers some different experiences.
At under 200 pages, this book is also a nice, short read. The story also includes some less common representation. One character has dyslexia and another lives with relatives in a foster placement.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content
One brief kiss.
Spiritual Content
None.
Violent Content
Kids play (generally harmless) pranks on one another.
Drug Content
Vague reference to Levi’s mom having had some past issues with alcohol.
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Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday
I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Check out other blogs with posts about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle.