Where I got it: Library
Rating: 4 stars
Cover Rating: 4 stars (It's quite fitting for the book, but doesn't grab my attention from other books.)
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: October 13, 2011
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Page Count: 458 p.
Buy it: Book Depository / Amazon
Sara is sixteen and from Vermont. She started ballet in a basement studio in her small town. She is thrilled and surprised when she is offered a scholarship to study ballet in New Jersey. She feels like she's finally on the track to becoming a professional ballerina. Once she is there though, doubts start to creep in. She starts to feel unsure of who she is and what she wants. Things get even more complicated when she starts to fall for twenty-something Remington. He has a girlfriend, but they seem on rocky ground. Maybe a boyfriend is just what Sara needs for her home away from home. Maybe it'll just complicated things even further though and make Sara even more unsure of what her future holds.
This was a very interesting read. I did ballet for a few years when I was younger, so I knew some of the terms but more than half I had no idea what they were. Not a huge deal, but make sure you have the internet handy if you want to be able to picture their moves better and you are not a ballerina. I did love the writing though and with the ballet motions, it just brought the characters to life. Picturing Sara posing in front of her mirror arabesque, or gliding across the studio jeté. It just really made the novel enjoyable and added a lovely lyrical quality to the brief phrases of verse.
The one thing that irked me about this book is how Sara switched back and forth between naive girl from Vermont to wise ballerina woman. Sometimes she just had these amazing, adult, moments of clarity but then she would slide right back in to her sixteen-year-old, unsure skin. Though, teens are wild and complicated creatures, moody and such. Maybe that's just the kind of person she was. It did seem to switch a bit too far though, almost as if Sara was writing about it years later and interspersing new found wisdom throughout her narrative.
Now, despite the age difference, this was not a big teacher-student relationship thing. I do enjoy reading those novels, but this one was not risque enough to fall into the category. Their love just wasn't forbidden enough I suppose. Granted they do get quite intimate and he is in his twenties, while she is only a teen. Honestly though, the relationship did not seem that scandalous. The relationship was mostly just a coming-of-age moment for Sara. Having never really had a boyfriend, she has to experiment and figure out what she wants.
That's the big theme of the novel. Sara finding what she really wants in life, not just what is expected of her. This is not expected just by her parents, but things Sara expects of herself. This was an amazing verse novel and I eagerly wait for Stasia Ward Kehoe's sophomore debut!
First Line:
"When you are a dance
You learn the beginning
Is first position."
Favorite Lines:
"This night is all adagio."
"I wake up lonely.
Want to be
Someone's
Prima
Ballerina
Muse
Girl."
Sara is sixteen and from Vermont. She started ballet in a basement studio in her small town. She is thrilled and surprised when she is offered a scholarship to study ballet in New Jersey. She feels like she's finally on the track to becoming a professional ballerina. Once she is there though, doubts start to creep in. She starts to feel unsure of who she is and what she wants. Things get even more complicated when she starts to fall for twenty-something Remington. He has a girlfriend, but they seem on rocky ground. Maybe a boyfriend is just what Sara needs for her home away from home. Maybe it'll just complicated things even further though and make Sara even more unsure of what her future holds.
This was a very interesting read. I did ballet for a few years when I was younger, so I knew some of the terms but more than half I had no idea what they were. Not a huge deal, but make sure you have the internet handy if you want to be able to picture their moves better and you are not a ballerina. I did love the writing though and with the ballet motions, it just brought the characters to life. Picturing Sara posing in front of her mirror arabesque, or gliding across the studio jeté. It just really made the novel enjoyable and added a lovely lyrical quality to the brief phrases of verse.
The one thing that irked me about this book is how Sara switched back and forth between naive girl from Vermont to wise ballerina woman. Sometimes she just had these amazing, adult, moments of clarity but then she would slide right back in to her sixteen-year-old, unsure skin. Though, teens are wild and complicated creatures, moody and such. Maybe that's just the kind of person she was. It did seem to switch a bit too far though, almost as if Sara was writing about it years later and interspersing new found wisdom throughout her narrative.
Now, despite the age difference, this was not a big teacher-student relationship thing. I do enjoy reading those novels, but this one was not risque enough to fall into the category. Their love just wasn't forbidden enough I suppose. Granted they do get quite intimate and he is in his twenties, while she is only a teen. Honestly though, the relationship did not seem that scandalous. The relationship was mostly just a coming-of-age moment for Sara. Having never really had a boyfriend, she has to experiment and figure out what she wants.
That's the big theme of the novel. Sara finding what she really wants in life, not just what is expected of her. This is not expected just by her parents, but things Sara expects of herself. This was an amazing verse novel and I eagerly wait for Stasia Ward Kehoe's sophomore debut!
First Line:
"When you are a dance
You learn the beginning
Is first position."
Favorite Lines:
"This night is all adagio."
"I wake up lonely.
Want to be
Someone's
Prima
Ballerina
Muse
Girl."
I think I want to read this one. It sounds good, but I was hoping for a more intense situation between teacher and student. Either way, I am glad you liked it. Great review :)
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