The Headliner by Mickie StepfordCara “CeCe” Chambers has always had a lot to say. As a nine year-old girl, CeCe presents life as the only child of two very different parents in The Headliner. The self-aware kid introduces readers to Nelson, her mentally challenged best-friend and Tina, her sassy teenaged cousin. Though her father is an idealistic alcoholic, and her mother runs from her problems, CeCe bounces through life with an effervesce of a Mexican jumping bean. Life is good for CeCe until tragedy hits her happy little world.Cara emerges in the book’s second half as a thirtysomething survivor of lost innocence. Inspired by the past and ever-tickled by the present, Cara tells her life’s tales on stage as Chicago’s finest stand-up comic. That’s where she meets him.The Headliner is the first black fiction to explore the life of a black female comedian. Author Mickie Stepford captures the wit and the wisdom of the black middle class, and subsequently acquaints the reader with a comedian anyone would want to know.