KODOCHA: SANA'S STAGE (Kodomo no Omocha, "Child's Toy"), by Miho Obana. First published in 1994 and first published in North America in 2002.
PLOT:
Sana is a popular child actress with a larger-than-life personality and a pressing need to help the people around her. Her first project is to stop a gang of rowdy boys from tormenting her homeroom teacher and disrupting class. Sana eventually confronts their leader, Akito, and wins. In the process, though, she learns that he's dealing with much heavier matters at home and Sana may be the only one able to help him.
