SOLVED. Children's book. Girl who has to put on the musical The Sound of Music with delinquent boy. Read around 2010-2015. Spoilers ahead. [s]

[Tyler]

This book was about this young girl who for some reason had to put on the musical The Sound of Music with this spiky-haired delinquent boy whom she didn't really like. A specific detail I remember was that the people behind the show cast children of different ethnicities as the von Trapp children and called it a "rainbow cast" or something like that. I remember this choice being well-received by audiences within the book since it showed that their theater's casting was "color-blind."

I know the idea of color-blindness regarding ethnicity is sometimes considered insensitive or counterproductive, so I hope I'm not offending anyone, but it's just a detail that I remember from the book itself. Anyways, the main character girl worked backstage and helped with the technical side of the show while the spiky-haired delinquent (I feel like his name was something like Chase, but I can't totally remember!) played the character Rolfe in the musical because he could sing really well. I feel like apples also had something to do with the plot, but I can't be sure, I could be confusing that detail with another book.

I was very young read when I read this book, so I'm not sure when it was published, but I want to say it's in the range of late 90s/early 2000s to 2015 max. I think the cover of the book had the girl, who had short brown hair, on it and also the boy, who had spiky red hair. I think I remember the author having a feminine name, but I can't completely recall. The book was originally published in the English language, and it was definitely an American book.

[Tyler]

Emilie wrote: "Surviving the Applewhites"

Yes, you're right! Thank you so much! It was really bugging me.

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, Tyler. Here's the link for Emilie's find - Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan.