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The Chance to Fly by Ali Stroker & Stacy Davidowitz

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The Chance to Fly

by Ali Stroker & Stacy Davidowitz

Narrator Ali Stroker

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Length 6 hours 42 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“MY HEART EXPLODED WHILE READING THIS BOOK! It was an absolute DELIGHT and also so, so important. As a theater superfan, my heart absolutely melted with the sheer theater-ness of this book. All the chapters have titles of musical theater songs and the kids literally joke and use theater songs as metaphors (literally, me). Nat even talked about how she knew the entire Wicked soundtrack back to front without even seeing it on Broadway which is EXACTLY how I consumed it. I love that Nat found her people and her place amongst the theater kids. I was never a performer so missed bonding with that crowd until I was older but honestly, theater kids are the same no matter what age they are! Besides the theater-ness, this book was so important because it features a girl living with a disability without centering her disability. Ali Stroker, one of the co-authors, is a Tony Award winning actress and also a trailblazer as the first person to star on Broadway while using a wheelchair. Together, she and Stacy Davidowitz touch upon all the ways the world does not support people who use wheelchairs, especially in the theater world. I adored this book and will be recommending it to everybody but especially every theater fan (adult and child, I already excitedly texted many of my theater colleagues). It is so important to read diverse books, especially from authors living with disabilities.”
— Kimi • Buttonwood Books and Toys

Summary
About the authors
About the narrator

A heartfelt middle-grade novel about a theater-loving girl who uses a wheelchair for mobility and her quest to defy expectations--and gravity--from Tony award-winning actress Ali Stroker and Stacy Davidowitz

Thirteen-year-old Nat Beacon loves a lot of things: her dog Warbucks, her best friend Chloe, and competing on her wheelchair racing team, the Zoomers, to name a few. But there's one thing she's absolutely OBSESSED with: MUSICALS! From Hamilton to Les Mis, there's not a cast album she hasn't memorized and belted along to. She's never actually been in a musical though, or even seen an actor who uses a wheelchair for mobility on stage. Would someone like Nat ever get cast?

But when Nat's family moves from California to New Jersey, Nat stumbles upon auditions for a kids' production of Wicked, one of her favorite musicals ever! And she gets into the ensemble! The other cast members are super cool and inclusive (well, most of them)-- especially Malik, the male lead and cutest boy Nat's ever seen. But when things go awry a week before opening night, will Nat be able to cast her fears and insecurities aside and "Defy Gravity" in every sense of the song title?

Children's Music Perspectives on Disability

Ali Stroker made history as the first person in a wheelchair to appear on Broadway and win a Tony Award. She made her Broadway debut in the revival of Spring Awakening and then played Ado Annie in the revival of Oklahoma! Ali graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and has starred and recurred in numerous television shows including "Glee." Her work as a humanitarian includes speaking and performing around the world helping people with and without disabilities through her message of "Making your Limitations into Opportunities." This is her debut novel.

Stacy Davidowitz is the author of the Camp Rolling Hills series and coauthor of Camp Rolling Hills the Musical, which continues to have productions across the country. She is also the author of the Hanazuki chapter-book series based on Hasbro's YouTube series. Stacy has written award-winning plays that have been produced regionally and internationally. When she is not writing, she teaches creative writing and musical theater in schools, foster care facilities, and juvenile detention centers. She is a graduate of Tufts University and Columbia University, where she earned degrees in drama and acting. Stacy lives in Manhattan with her husband and twin boys.