Fieldnotes:
Dance Competition, Contemporary (p.2014)

8 Teenage Girls
1 Overly Competitve Dance Instructor
3rd Place Finish

1 Completely Reworked Dance
with Well Described Moves
Many Hours Hard Work
Anger and Resentment

1 Wise Russian Grandmother
Growing as a Team

The Short Version:
Jasmine is the youngest on a lyrical dance team and when they take 3rd place to their biggest rival's 1st, the teacher and team all become hyper-competitive sucking the joy out of dance until they choose to work together.

A short snack of a book - the plot itself is like an episode from a teen TV show (which is fine). The writing really shines in describing the dance and the emotion behind it that made it easy to get a feel for the dance (even to readers without a dance background). ( )

Dancing was supposed to be fun, but lately everything's going wrong. It's hard to tell what's worse -- the teacher's unforgiving attitude or the way she keeps changing the choreography. And instead of focusing on working as a team to beat the rival troupe, the dancers are too busy in-fighting. Maybe it's time to quit the team. Or maybe it's time for a new approach.

This breezy book makes for a fast read. The descriptions of the choreography were hard for a nondancer like me to follow, but otherwise, this is an enjoyable book with the right balance of angst and hope.

Jasmine loves to dance, but she is having trouble feeling the emotions of dance. She finds herself counting and trying to remember the steps of the choreography, and the dance instructor notices. Moondance, Jasmine's dance team, has moved on the the finals after receiving third place in the preliminary round, but something is not working for this team anymore. Everyone seems to be mad at each other, and former friends have chosen sides. Negative talk from the dance instructor does not help either. As the team prepares for the finals, Jasmine struggles with whether she wants to quit the dance team. Seeking advice from her grandmother and a young man she has been friends with since the third grade helps Jasmine realize that she is a great dancer and that she can feel the emotions of the dance when she remembers to simply let the feelings come. I enjoyed this short novel, and I appreciated the ending.
Early Reviewers :) ( )

I received this book tonight when I got home from work. I decided to give it a try and finished reading it in five and a half hours! I couldn't put it down! The characters are very easy to relate to and Jasmine is an excellent protagonist. I am going to strongly reccomend teenage girls read this to see what comes of teamwork.

Definately buying an official copy to put in my classroom library. ( )