The First Annual Casa Vista Holiday Spectacular

11-year-old Astrid has a plan for everything. And an opinion about everything. And a voice that adults say really projects, whatever that means. When Ms. Maureen, the cranky property manager of her family’s apartment building, unexpectedly approves her yearly request to host a Christmas Eve show in the first floor community room, Astrid has just 48 hours to stage and rehearse what she hopes will be the greatest one-kid-show of all time. Except she doesn’t have a microphone or a stage or decorations or refreshments or costumes or much of anything really, except a few Christmas-themed jokes. Astrid soon realizes that, as much as she may like to, she can’t do it alone. She’s going to need help, lots of it, to have hope of pulling off any sort of performance in time. As she recruits her kid brother, Gabe, her on-again / off-again, newly bar mitzvah-ed friend, Levi, and more and more of her neighbors, the show grows in scale and scope into an unexpectedly collaborative and strangely spectacular showcase of the Casa Vista apartment building’s talent.

The First Annual Casa Vista Holiday Spectacular is a middle grade chapter book about teamwork and community for the real Astrids of the world: prank pullers, schemers, smart alecks with hearts of gold.

(about 25,000 words)
excerpt ⟶
sample art ⟶