Here’s How I See It, Here’s How It Is
Book Review
Fantasy and the real world are two very different topics. Especially in Here’s How I See It, Here’s How It Is, by Heather Henson. In this realistic-fiction book our main chcharacter Junebug who, for the summer, works at her dad’s summer theater the Blue Moon. Junebug dreams of being a big time actress for Broadway but instead, she is working back stage and being the thunder for the opening play. She experiences many struggles along her way through the summer.

Here’s How I See It, Here’s How It Is is a great book if you are a theater bug. This book has your Romeo and Juliette and the Tempest and much more that the Blue Moon preforms. Henson really brings the theater to life. “You can almost smell the greasepaint” says James Howe in his review of Here’s How I See It, Here’s How It Is. She also brings the plays to life, how she describes the feelings of the actors and what the play portrays is very vivid and descriptive.

Here’s How I See It, Here’s How It Is is also extremely easy to read. If you’re not a good reader or have trouble keeping up with a book then you should read this one. Henson goes very slow and whenever a chcharacter is introduced she gives background information on them like when you get a script and it explains each chcharacter. She is also good at explaining the events in Junebug’s life. This book is a “girl’s book”. It is told by a girl and her problems dealing with boys, an older sister and not feeling like she is pretty enough. I don’t recommend it for guys.

Heather Henson grew up in a summer stock theater, just like the one she describes as the Blue Moon. The chcharacters in her book are based on real life people throughout her childhood. When she was a child she had her own dressing and prop room in the theater. She never became an actress like she dreamed but she says that, “ deep down I think I was more of a listener than a performer.” Her book Here’s How I See It, Here’s How It Is was published in 2009 by Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing Division.

The theme , or lesson, this book tells is life can be hard “when there is no script to follow.” In other words, there is no written plan to live by for your life there are no exact lines, life is hard and you make the decisions in it. I really encourage readers to read this book, I had had it for years and never picked it up because I thought it looked stupid, but what a mistake!