Starrin'...Loretta Padgett! - Paperback

by Amanda Rachels (Illustrator), Rachell Elaine Jackson (Author)

If it had not been for Suellen, 12 year-old Loretta may never have gotten the role of Toto the dog in the school's spring play--not that getting that role, or any role, was of paramount importance to her. But Suellen's friendship was. Loretta's earlier attempt at acting had ended in a catastrophe that not only shook her confidence in performing, but in herself as well. It also made her the butt of jokes and taunts from the other students. She responded by going on the offensive, by becoming the misfit, the goof-off that she was accused of being. But she wasn't just any class clown; she was the most outrageous one anybody could imagine! And she began to revel in her new-found notoriety. Loretta's principal and teachers in the New Orleans middle school barely tolerated her antics though many students thought them hilarious. But Suellen's patience soon ran out and their friendship began to slip away. In desperation, Suellen issued a final challenge to her, a challenge that would define her and their friendship for the future.

Author Biography

Rachell Elaine Jackson was virtually born with a book in her hands and at least three more sitting on her end table next to her bassinet waiting to be read. Her love of reading led to her penning her own stories, skits, and plays and eventually led to amateur and professional productions and publications. A large number of her plays now reside in the catalogs of five major U.S. publishers under two different pseudonyms. Writing novels, though, is different. It opens up and expands the world of her imagination because she is no longer bound by the limitations of the stage. She especially enjoyed her time in middle and high schools which she remembers vividly and fondly. So it is there that her novels live, dealing with the difficult, though often humorous, problems and joys of adolescence. Her graduate degrees are in the areas of communications, theatre, and writing, subjects she also teaches on the university level.