Look...! It's 1955!

by Laura Jerrolds

Hooray for Hollywood…!Zoe would rather do anything than watch another black-and-white movie for her college film class. When her best friends, Carrie and Riley, suggest going to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to get her out of a funk, she is ecstatic. Will the old-timey movie vibes in the theme park be enough inspiration to crank out an A+ paper?When Zoe separates from her friends in search of her missing earring, she finds herself back in time on the set of a real movie in Hollywood amid the 1950s. On top of that, everyone mistakes her for the famous blonde actress Stella and demands an autograph. The two girls look so much alike that they could be twin sisters.Stella hatches a plan for the girls to switch places so she can enjoy two days of being a normal girl. How can Zoe pass up the opportunity to live a life of luxury in the spotlight? But Stella’s life is more complicated than she could’ve ever dreamed.

209 pages, Paperback

Published April 13, 2024

About the author

Laura Jerrolds is a silent film historian with a special interest in 1920s actresses. Her love for the era came to be while writing her first book, a middle-grade tale of time travel, Help...! It's 1928!. In 2022, she graduated from the Florida Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in marketing and currently works in Human Resources Management at Florida State University, residing in Tallahassee. Jerrolds' first biography and non-fiction book, Laura La Plante: Silent Cinderella, is her proudest accomplishment, as researching the actresses helped her to connect further with the period she admires so greatly. Other works under her name include Wait...! It's 1884!, Look...! It's 1955!, and The Riverton Mystery, the once-unreleased 1944 manuscript from renowned children's author Lilian Garis, where Jerrolds wrote an introduction, compiled and edited the project that is currently housed at The New York Public Library.

Reviews

[Soph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh I am genuinely so sad that this trilogy is over! This was my favourite of the series and a perfect final instalment in what has been an absolutely joy of a series to read.

Laura’s writing goes from strength to strength with each novel she releases and I will deeply miss this charming middle grade world she has built. If you are looking for a cosy, friendship driven series, I truly cannot recommend this trilogy enough

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the final book in this trilogy, each featuring a different main character traveling back in time and having an adventure there. In this, Zoe is at Disneyworld with her friends and ends up traveling back in time to 1955 Hollywood, where she’s mistaken for a starlet named Stella. Stella is eager to exploit their similar features, hoping that Zoe can briefly take her place so she can sneak away from set. But of course purse things don’t go as smoothly as planned and both Stella and Zoe have to figure out how to get things back to normal!

This was a solid conclusion to the trilogy. I liked how the story came full circle, with stars from previous books making appearances in here. It’s definitely aimed at younger readers, but I can totally see myself having loved this had I read it growing up! The story is simple but fun, and I felt like the problems faced in this book were more exciting (and also more realistic) than the previous two books, which I also enjoyed. None of the books in this trilogy were especially deep or complex, but they were all lighthearted fun, which is exactly what I’d hoped they’d be!