Review: The Rehearsal Club

The Rehearsal Club

Authors: Kate Fodor & Laurie Petrou

Groundwood Books, 2025

ISBN: 9781773069913 (paperback)
9781773069920 (EPUB)

$17.99 CAN (paperback)
$14.99 CAN (EPUB)

352 pages

Ages: 9 to 12 years

Pal and her parents have recently moved to New York City. Her older sister, Naomi, already lives there at an old establishment called the Rehearsal Club, where young women in pursuit of an acting career board. While visiting Naomi one night, Pal stumbles across a box of old Rehearsal Club documents from the 1950s–among them, a picture of Olive and Posy, and a document indicating Posy’s dismissal from the Rehearsal Club. Intrigued, Pal is determined to find out why Posy was dismissed while coming to terms with mistakes she’s made in her own past—and brings with her the friends she's made along the way. Switching between the present and the 1950s, this novel’s straightforward writing and classic mystery structure make it appropriate for children ages 9-12 years old. Themes of forgiveness, sisterhood, and intergenerational friendship are present. There are no illustrations.