Short

Ages 8 to 12 

This highly acclaimed middle-grade novel is by the beloved author of the New York Times bestselling Counting by 7s.

Julia is very short for her age, but she’s big on the inside, where it counts.

This is the summer she gets cast as a Munchkin in a regional theater production of The Wizard of Oz.

She hasn’t ever thought of herself as a performer, but she is instantly enamored of the director, Shawn Barr, who notices her can-do attitude and who believes in the potential of his Munchkin chorus—a motley crew of kids (plus the only three actual little people who were available).

As Julia becomes friendly with the poised and wise Olive—an adult with dwarfism who doesn’t let her size define her—and with a deeply artistic neighbor named Mrs. Chang, her own sense of herself as an artist grows.

It’s a lucky break, then, when Shawn Barr chooses her to also play the role of one of the flying monkeys!

Bubbling over with humor and tenderness, this is an irresistible story of self-discovery and of the role models who forever change us.