Amazon Reviewer: This novel was a quick and fun read. While addressing serious, socially-relevant topics like bullying, this book is also an engaging story of a girl who is trying to follow her dreams and to find a place where she belongs.
Twelve-year-old Bernie Taylor doesn't fit in. She wants to be an actress but not your typical country-music lovin', beef-eatin' actress you'd expect from Cornville, Illinois. No way. She wants to go to Chicago to be a real actress, just like her mom did before she died of breast cancer.
Bernie keeps a journal that her Mom gave her and writes down all her confessions, the deepest feelings of her heart, 'cause she doesn't want any of those regrets Mom talked about. Regrets sound too much like those bubbly blisters she keeps getting on her feet from trying to fit into last year's designer knock-off shoes. But it's not easy for Bernie to pursue her dreams. Her dad just doesn't understand. Plus, she's tired of being bullied for being different. Why can't middle schoolers wear runway fashions to school?
Then, during the announcement of the sixth grade play, Bernie's teacher reveals that there will be one scholarship to a prestigious performing arts camp in Chicago. Bernie knows it's her one big chance to be an actress. She spends too much time dreaming of the lead role in the play (which includes kissing Cameron Edmunds) and not enough time practicing her audition lines. She bumbles her lines, blows her audition, and battles her bully, Dixie Moxley, reigning Jr. Miss Corn Harvest Queen. She digs in with the heels of her hand-me-down knee-high boots, determined to win that scholarship-somehow. If she doesn't, she'll be stuck in Cornville forever, far away from the spotlight she craves.
