Carter's Big Break

VOYA - Walter Hogan

Carter's hometown is the location for tween sensation Hilary Idaho's latest feature film. Since the casting director is on a tight budget, fourteen-year-old Carter and some of his fellow high school drama students are offered a thrilling, unexpected chance to perform in a Hollywood movie. This novel picks up where the chronicle of Carter's freshman year, Carter Finally Gets It (Disney Hyperion, 2009/VOYA April 2009) left off. Now the hyperactive hero is on summer vacation, bringing with him onto the movie set his ADD impulses, his unpredictable relationship with sometime-girlfriend Abby, and his gross, goofy antics with a scruffy gang of male accomplices. Narrating in present tense, Carter invites the reader to fully experience the distracted brain, raging hormones, and clumsy body of an early teen. Gross-out humor, profanity, and obsessive comments on female bodies are pervasive, literally from the first page to the last. By his own admission, Carter is a shallow ignoramus (barely passing 9th grade), but his redeeming features include a good heart and a serious dedication to the craft of acting. Author Brent Crawford's own experience working in theater, film, and television comes through in the many authentic details of film production that Carter learns on the set. The industry's exploitation of child stars and the terrible pressures of celebrity life are exemplified in the person of Hilary Idaho, who lives on the brink of chemical-assisted emotional breakdowns. Carter's efforts to support Hilary help him to gain the perspective that his own problems are manageable, after all. Reviewer: Walter Hogan

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up—In this hilarious sequel to Carter Finally Gets It (Hyperion, 2009), readers once again meet up with Will Carter, 14, who has a terrific girlfriend, Abby, and has just come off a terrific run playing Sky Masterson in his school's performance of Guys and Dolls. Carter thinks everything is going his way when he's cast as the lead in an independent film, but he ends up losing his girlfriend in the process. Fortunately, his new costar just happens to be Hilary Idaho, a Miley Cyrus-type character who ends up making Carter forget all about Abby—or does she? As Carter gets to know Hilary, he finds things hidden beneath her public persona that he's not sure he wants to know about. Plus, making a movie is a lot harder than it looks, especially when his ex-girlfriend is cast as Hilary's stand-in. Carter is a character who will definitely appeal to boys—he's crass, outspoken, and obsessed with T & A. This fast and fun read will definitely appeal to reluctant readers who want to see the underdog succeed in life and love. A must-have, especially where the first book is popular.—Traci Glass, Eugene Public Library, OR

Kirkus Reviews

Narrowly scraping through his freshman year, 14-year-old Will Carter is looking forward to swimming with his buddies and making out with his girlfriend, Abby. Following a disastrous movie date, Carter finds himself both single and signed onto a movie project with the hot tween starlet Hilary Idaho. High-strung producers, on-set conflicts and celebrity drama make for one memorable summer. Crawford brings the same manic voice and frantic pacing that marked this book's predecessor, Carter Finally Gets It (2009). Will is no more mature than in the earlier work, and although the scenarios in which he finds himself require that readers make some serious investment in credulity, the humor is well intentioned and appealing. The gentle digs at the tween-entertainment juggernaut will resonate and may stimulate discussion. No literary blockbuster, this sophomore novel nevertheless propels Carter further along in reader fandom. (Fiction. 10-14)