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Cover Reveal

Exclusive Cover Reveal: Not Just a Stage by Kelsey B. Toney

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Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome Kelsey B. Toney to reveal the cover of her bi Contemporary Middle Grade debut, Not Just a Stage, releasing April 20, 2027 from Crown Books for Young Readers! Here’s the story:

A funny, accessible upper middle grade novel about young performer Sunny, who is torn between her rock band and the theater world—and between her guitarist, Kennedy, and a castmate, Carlos.

Sunny Cavendish knows exactly who she is onstage.

Actually… she knows who she is on two stages. By day, Sunny is a musical theater powerhouse, fresh off her final middle school show and chasing a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to an elite summer workshop that could change her future forever. By night, she’s the lead singer of The Pulled Petals, an all-girl rock band on the verge of their biggest break yet.

The problem? Both dreams want everything. When Sunny’s band lands a career-making audition the exact same week she earns a callback for the workshop, Sunny decides to do the impossible: she won’t choose. She’ll juggle it all. Sneak between rehearsals. Say yes to every opportunity. Make everyone happy. What could go wrong?

As exhaustion mounts, lies pile up, friendships strain, and a crush on two very different people complicates everything, Sunny is forced to confront a truth she’s been avoiding: sometimes chasing every dream means risking the ones that matter most.

And here’s the cover, designed by Jade Rector with art by Emma Ream!

Cover of Not Just A Stage: Illustrated scene mostly in pinks, purples, and blues depicting a white, teenage girl in the center foreground with long brown hair and an anxious look in her eye. She wears a pink star tee shirt and a blue skirt with high top sneakers and holds a script in one hand and a microphone in the other. Around the edges of the cover, pink, blue, and purple dots make a border. Behind her, on either side of a raised stage with its pink curtains tied back, there are two other teens. On the left, a guy with brown skin and shoulder length brown hair holding another copy of the script and on the right, a girl with pale skin and curly red hair holding a blue electric guitar. Above the characters, a large marquee shows the title "Not Just a Stage" surrounded by lights. Above it, the tagline says "the shows must go on" and at the bottom, the author's name "Kelsey B. Toney" sits centered.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | PRH

Kelsey B. Toney writes humorous, heartfelt stories about the hope that exists after we’ve made our most laughably bad decisions. She is the author of the USA Today Bestseller, THE UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCE OF BLEEDING ON A TUESDAY which was a NYPL and Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year, an ALA “RISE: A Feminist Book Project List” Top Ten Selection, an ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults Top Ten Selection, and a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. In past lives, Kelsey has been a teacher, recording artist, and actress—always in pursuit of connection through art and empathy. Learn more about Kelsey at kelseybtoney.com, on her podcast, or in her newsletter.