Callie Marin is a seventh grade student and self-confessed theatre nerd. Problem is, she can neither sing nor act. Instead she becomes the set designer for the school musical and finds that not all drama is onstage.
While Callie’s love for the stage is clear, which boy she loves is a different matter. Is it Greg, the handsome older boy who flirted with her while on a break from his diva girlfriend? Or is it Justin, the cute boy who is playing the comic relief in the school production – who happens to be gay? What about his twin brother, Jesse, who isn’t gay and is helping Callie with set decorating? Raina Telgemeier follows up her award-winning graphic novel Smile (2010) with another dead-on look at the confusing world of high school, capturing all the drama swirling around the school production: from jealousies and misunderstandings to the last-minute surprise stage substitution that may not make a star, but helps settle the question of who likes who.
Although Telgemeier has been credited with normalising LGBTQ+ acceptance and the act of coming out, Drama has consistently appeared on the American Library Association’s Top Ten Banned Books since it was published in 2012.
Telgemeier, R. (2012). Drama [graphic novel]. Graphix/Scholastic.