RIBBONS

Her demanding ballet teacher believes that Robin Lee has real talent, but it's unlikely that she'll be able to develop it soon.

Every penny her family can scrape up has to be saved to bring Robin's grandmother from China to the US—an obligation that Robin's mother sees as almost sacred—so Robin's lessons are scrapped. When the crotchety old woman arrives, she quickly establishes herself as the center of the Lees' universe. A frustrated Robin dutifully practices her ballet exercises on her own in the garage, but the combination of ballet shoes that have grown too small and a lack of formal instruction results in little progress and increasingly deformed feet. Her anger builds until the day she finds her grandmother soaking her hideously misshapen feet, which were bound in her youth. The sight sobers and humbles Robin utterly and marks the beginning of a touching and beautiful bond between the old woman and the young one.

Yep (Hiroshima, p. 642, etc.) creates an elegant tale of love and understanding with an upbeat resolution that will please the most demanding readers.