In this companion to Meet the Musicians (2006), Nathan offers a chatty and informative look at 16 dancers, their childhoods, their training and their professional lives. Sidebars offer quick tips on taking class, summer activities, typical days and performance pointers. There’s also an entertaining “Sugar Plum Sightings,” revealing where each performed The Nutcracker and in what roles. The range of dance styles, from classical ballet to modern dance to Broadway, gives this a wide appeal, as does the pleasing diversity of the 16 men and women. Readers drawn to dancing won’t necessarily pore over the black-and-white photographs, but they will find value in reading about the winning combination of childhood and adult determination, hard work, perseverance, family support and help from teachers. Brief bios at the beginning of each chapter provide appealing personal tidbits. Recommended for those interested in the lives of dancers or a career in dance. (glossary, resources, index) (Collective biography. 9-12)
Pub Date: May 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8071-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2008
The transformation of a teenage ne'er-do-well to gridiron great is traced in this novel from Dygard (Game Plan, 1993, etc.) that could be subtitled ``Portrait of the Troubled Teen as a Fledgling Jock.'' After his bad-apple pals Jimbo and Bucky sideswipe a parked car, Pete gets collared by Officer Stowell and dragged down to the police station. He'd shown enough flair while trying to outrun the law that Officer Stowell calls up Coach Wilson of the famed Cartwright Bulldogs. The coach comes to the station and offers Pete the chance to play for the team, in exchange for his freedom. Pete agrees, reluctantly; by his second practice he shows natural talent as a receiver, and in his first game he almost single-handedly catapults the Bulldogs to victory. In this never-never land of teenage cooperation and respect, Pete is soon chugging sodas with the varsity players, who, unlike most of their real-life contemporaries, abstain form beer drinking, drugs, or any other behavior frowned upon during the Eisenhower Administration. The theft of Pete's playbook and its sale to a rival high school threaten to sink his career, but a forced confession by Jimbo, at the hands of Pete's teammates, clears the young player for future glory. Perceptive nine-year-olds might like this; older readers will find Pete's high school too white-bread and whitewashed to merit a visit. (Fiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-688-14853-0
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1996
A young boy discovers self-confidence and endures the loss of his best friend in Gray's uneven debut. As the story opens, the 14- year-old narrator—whom Gray never refers to by name—and his best friend, Jamie, are on a ``Creep''—running and sneaking through neighbors' yards under cover of night. But when Jamie gets arrested, the protagonist is labeled a ``Nambie'' at school, blasted by other creepers for letting his ``Buddie'' get ``Snared.'' Then a fire destroys Jamie's home, killing him. The narrator's grief and terror are dramatically conveyed; similarly, when Jamie suddenly appears at his friend's house the following evening, claiming to have escaped the fire completely, readers will feel the narrator's unbounded joy. Their only course of action seems clear, a creep to end all creeps. The thrill of victory is marred only by Jamie's absence; he really did die in the fire, of course, and now exists only in the protagonist's tormented imagination. Many readers will find the lead character's departure from reality too clumsy and contrived to accept. Despite the involving characters and setting, Gray doesn't convey the significance of creeping convincingly, thereby rendering the events of the story none too compelling. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 13, 1997
ISBN: 0-399-23186-2
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1997
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