You know those stories where some shy, mousy, ugly-duckling girl finds herself center stage, sweating it out under the spotlight? And everyone freaks out, thinking she's going to be a big flop, but she opens her mouth — and suddenly she's a hit? Then, after the encore and the standing ovation and the throwing roses at her feet, someone points to the girl and says, all shocked: "A star is born!"

This is not one of those stories.

I mean, I guess sometimes it happens that way. But not with me. I'm not "Surprise, a star is born!" material. I'm the opposite: I was born a star.

No, really. My dad took all these videos when I was little, and you can tell I wasn't just an ordinary kid, all red-faced and squealing. When I squealed, people listened. Even then, I had star presence.

That's what my great-aunt Silva calls it. "You don't learn star presence," she always says. "You live it."

And that's what I've been doing my whole life.

Every star is a work in progress. By my thirteenth birthday, my progress had been straight up for thirteen years. Up like a skyscraper. Up like a rocket. Up like a shooting star.

Wait, you may be saying. Shooting stars go down. They start in the sky, then flame out in the atmosphere and plummet toward the earth.

Well, I was about to do the same thing.

I just didn't know it yet.

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  Candy Apple # 4: How To Be a Girly Girl in Just Ten Days Nicolette Spicer ("Nick" to her friends) is a tomboy through and through. While her friends focus on shopping and lip gloss, Nick would rather buy new basketball shoes and practice her free throw. But everything changes when she meets a cutie named Ben and decides she has to ditch the jock look if she wants him to notice her. With the biggest party of the school year just ten days away, Nick is in a crunch. But when her best friend Lindsay suggests a magazine-article-inspired makeover, it seems like the perfect solution. But can Nick change her looks and still be herself? $5.99 books;paperbacks;paperbacks | Ages 9-12

  
  Candy Apple # 4: How To Be a Girly Girl in Just Ten Days
  Ages 9-12 $5.99
  
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  Candy Apple #17: Miss Popularity Goes Camping by Francesco Sedita Cassie Cyan Knight -- former Texas girl, forever fashion plate -- has finally started to adjust to life in preppy, rural Maine. But then Cassie learns that the sixth grade is going on a field trip. . . to a nature preserve! There, Cassie will have to endure hiking, camping and -- gulp! -- white-water rafting. Worse, how on earth is Cassie supposed to survive without cell reception and hair products? But with a little luck, a lot of pluck, and her supportive best friend, Etoile, Cassie may just conquer the wilderness after all -- and teach her classmates a thing or two about camping in style! $5.99 books;paperbacks | Ages 9-12

  
  Candy Apple #17: Miss Popularity Goes Camping
  Ages 9-12 $5.99
  

ARTICLE	The Back to School WEB Almost everybody is nervous about the first day of school, but for elementary school students moving up into middle school, that new world can look mighty big and scary. My school is part of a program called W.E.B (Where Everybody Belongs).