Sure to satisfy beginners and seasoned dancers longing to relive those first steps that made them love the craft.
Learning contemporary dance isn’t the most conventional route to earning a varsity football spot, but for Luc Waldon, it’s his only shot.
After biracial (black/white) Luc, a talented high school athlete, sustains a devastating knee injury, his coach orders him to take summer dance classes as a strength-building exercise. Since he dreams of winning a college football scholarship and hopefully playing in the NFL, Luc will do anything to retain his spot, but what he assumes will be an easy solution to his problem turns out to be far more challenging than expected. Deen (Sleight of Hand, 2015, etc.) is clearly in her element writing about dance, and every leg extension and muscle strain feels achingly authentic, as does Luc’s initial cluelessness, providing readers with an excellent introduction to dance terminology. She intertwines Luc’s journey as a dancer with a plot detailing his struggle to convince his workaholic father that time spent in the studio and away from the family lawn business is a worthy sacrifice. While the narrative zips along too quickly for some characters to become fully actualized, racial and sexual diversity is seamlessly integrated into the text. Dance is the central focus of the book, and deep reverence for the art form emanates from every page.
Sure to satisfy beginners and seasoned dancers longing to relive those first steps that made them love the craft. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4598-0920-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes
A gripping thriller in dystopic future Los Angeles.
Fifteen-year-olds June and Day live completely different lives in the glorious Republic. June is rich and brilliant, the only candidate ever to get a perfect score in the Trials, and is destined for a glowing career in the military. She looks forward to the day when she can join up and fight the Republic’s treacherous enemies east of the Dakotas. Day, on the other hand, is an anonymous street rat, a slum child who failed his own Trial. He's also the Republic's most wanted criminal, prone to stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. When tragedies strike both their families, the two brilliant teens are thrown into direct opposition. In alternating first-person narratives, Day and June experience coming-of-age adventures in the midst of spying, theft and daredevil combat. Their voices are distinct and richly drawn, from Day’s self-deprecating affection for others to June's Holmesian attention to detail. All the flavor of a post-apocalyptic setting—plagues, class warfare, maniacal soldiers—escalates to greater complexity while leaving space for further worldbuilding in the sequel.
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes . (Science fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25675-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK TO SCREEN
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