"It was great. I loved Phantom."

For a kid who couldn't stop excitedly telling me what happened next to Avery and Nik, my 9-year-old's review is succinct. This is a kid who has struggled to find a fiction book (beyond beginner books) he enjoyed. Every other MG or chapter book before this, he'd abandon partway through, usually after just the first chapter.

Avery and Phantom caught his imagination, and he really identified with Avery's anxiety and her stage fright. He also thought her crush on Nik was cute, and hoped everything would turn out well for her in the end. (I love the casual sapphic rep, showing people just loving people.) Obviously, he loved Phantom the cat, and he's excited (for the first time!) to read more from the Wish series. He told me "I want to read more from this author!" which is not something I've ever heard from him before, so that's a priceless gift.

While we've immersed him in stories since he was born with nightly reading times, and a wide variety of tales, I'm so excited to see him take off on his own now. His reading skill is more than competent for his age, but his interest in reading on his own had lagged. I'm looking forward to watching his love of reading hopefully bloom, and so grateful that this book gave him that push to enjoy books on his own. ( )

In this heartfelt story, 12-year-old Avery is an anxious girl prone to panic attacks, with a secret crush on one of the popular girls in her school. In part to impress her, she auditions for the school musical, and to her horror, lands the lead role. She finds solace in a stray cat, Phantom, who hangs around the school theater, and slowly makes two new human friends too, including her crush. Avery learns how to become comfortable with asking for and receiving help while dealing with her issues, as well as figuring out how to face her stage fright. ( )