I listened to a famous podcaster this week. He recently spoke to an audience of young people. He asked them what they wished for most of all.

“Fame,” they all said.

“What do you want to be famous for?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

So here’s their novel (do these kids still read?): The Love Song of Jonny Valentine by Teddy Wayne.

Whether it stokes or soaks their fire, I can’t say, but it was eye-opening to read the tale of an 11-year-old pop star, touring for his screaming young fans from Las Vegas to St. Louis to Memphis to New York’s Madison Square Garden.

He’s got an entourage: the backstage guys, the voice coach, the body guard, the opening-act band, the tutor, and his mom, aka his manager. She negotiates with every label and venue until their arm is good and twisted.  This troupe travels in at least two buses and I don’t know how many trucks.

Jonny seems older, because he’s awfully savvy about his career. “[T]he “jobs of a hundred and thirty-six people on this tour are standing on my shoulders, plus hundreds of people in that city.” He knows he’s got to maintain a strong social media presence. He’s knows its best to sing to the not-so-pretty girls; it gives them hope. He knows which demographics mean dollar signs. He knows, after hours of analyzing various crooners with his voice coach, how to hit this word extra hard, then pull back to a whisper on that word.

And he knows that fame attracts the crazies. Any person he passes in the hotel hallway could be a child predator.

At the same time, Jonny seems younger. On the fake date his label sets up with a female pop star, he is all bumbling errors, in spite of every staged move.  And when he tries to hang out with the boys in the opening-act band, he is simply not in his league.

Like all famous people, he uses his well-known name to literally open doors. There’s the downside, too; reading blog comments about your bubble-gum music can spoil your afternoon.

Underneath it all, Jonny has one big wish, which you’ll have to read to learn about.

It’s fun. It’s serious. It’s a peek into the fast lane. There are cow patties. They are frequent, adolescent and sneaky. So it’s up to you whether you want to ride along with young Jonny.

Photo credit: dualdflipflop on Visual Hunt / CC BY