MY ULTIMATE SISTER DISASTER

For 14 years narrator Franny has stood in her sister Zooey’s shadow as she has danced her way to prima-ballerina status at Lincoln Center. Zooey’s stardom has left Franny completely off her parent’s radar, breeding contempt between the sisters. However, when Zooey suffers a major dance injury, her unusual life—and its costs—becomes painfully apparent as Franny realizes that she has taken everyday events like attending school for granted. Slowly the girls form a genuine friendship that doesn’t go without a few bumps and bruises, but at the heart of their friendship is a mutual need for support. This has been sorely lacking from their parents, who have essentially both been emotionally absent, especially their mother, who is in Kenya studying, ironically enough, girls’ transition to womanhood. Allusions to Salinger’s Franny and Zooey are woven throughout, but those unfamiliar with that text won’t miss this book’s universal message about the lifelong bond of sisters and the resiliency of family. (Fiction. YA)