Review by Maryam, Year 5, The Cathedral School of St Peter and St John
Star of the Show is a book I really enjoyed, especially the part where the children believed they could manage on their own after their mother died and their father left them. The story was set in the Victorian era, which made it interesting, particularly because the star dancer, Tess, was brought up in a poor family and later made loads of money. My favourite character was Tess because, even when she was told she couldn’t be a fairy in the pantomime, she didn’t give up and she kept striving and, in the end, she succeeded. My least favourite character was Larissa because she was always mean to Tess, calling her a street urchin and constantly showing off, claiming she was better than her. I learned an interesting fact from this book, which is that if you partnered with someone in the market back then, you only received a quarter of the money. The plot was exciting, and the part that stood out the most was when Tess finally became a fairy in the pantomime, even though she had only been an understudy. I would recommend this book to others because it is both nice and interesting. I also learned new words such as pantomime and Ragged School. The only thing I didn’t like was how Larissa mistreated Tess. 

Review by Matthew, aged 8, Garstang St Thomas Primary School
Star of the show was really good, it was all about a young girl who really wanted to be on stage, but she only got to be the understudy, a mean girl said that she would never make it on stage. My 2 favourite characters were Mr Mountbank and Tess, they were the best characters because they are both kind people and he believed in her. Tess was determined and didn’t give up and eventually she got to perform because the main actor fell sick. I was happy for Tess when reading this. I loved this book as I am really into theatre, I like how she was trying to save her family.  I would recommend to my friends that would enjoy this type of book. It takes a lot of stamina to read, others helped me.