Robyn BavatiBesprekingen

6/10, this was an OK book that is just over 200 pages and is also a massive step up from Pirouette made by the same author yet it still suffers from flaws which I'll get into later on however I still enjoyed this nonetheless. It was an interesting stylistic choice to make this book have only one chapter that comprises the entirety of it and the only other book that does this that I know of is Changing Gear by Scot Gardner and I enjoyed that but I didn't mind that and I read on. It starts off with Jamie and Oscar trying to live normal lives after the devastating loss of their father and their mother is going away for the weekend but for some reason she doesn't arrive on time and Jamie starts to worry and then he has the biggest responsibility of taking care of Oscar as well as finding his mother which takes up most of the plot. He searches for her which actually takes him two weeks and he was away from school for quite a while and nobody notices him when he was gone and I think he even went to an entirely different state in Australia called Western Australia and he came from, you guessed it, the eastern part of Australia. The writing style and characters were fine and I could root for them but there were a lot of side characters that I really didn't care about and the only one I did care about is Jamie since he was written well.

Eventually he finds his mother but she is in a really bad coma and it turns out that she was driving in her car when a flood happened and it almost killed her if it weren't for the emergency services and she recovers from that eventually so they went back to the east of Australia and I was really relieved when that happened because I actually thought that she died and the two boys would become orphans or get foster parents or live with a relative but fortunately this isn't the case. If you like stories about journeys pick this one or Where the Road Leads Us by Robin Reul for something similar to this.

Trigger warnings: Death of parents in a car crash

6.5/10, this book's premise was rather fascinating which was essentially The Parent Trap in book form but now looking back it wasn't even that original and even back when I read this book I still disliked it because of how predictable it was. The story begins with a car crash and wow where have I seen this one before, how familiar so anyways the twins father died first and then their mother was taken to the hospital and gave birth to them just before she died so they were orphans and I found that hard to believe because we don't even know who the parents are and the mother realistically might have survived or died, killing both twins but that outcome in the book is possible though so I didn't give much thought about that and read on. There was a time skip and after fifteen years Simone and Hannah live in the US and Australia respectively and then they meet to go to different schools but they look identical yet one of them had the idea to do a DNA test to confirm that but who would prove something that's already true. A twin had another bright idea to swap lives so each twin had a different house, family and school that they experience and what could possibly go wrong other than predictable foreshadowing. Simone and Hannah keep up the charade until it all falls apart, they apologise for that and that is essentially it. I'm not too surprised that the library kept this book for quite a while now since it's a decade old but this is normal for them to do that. If you like books about twins this one is for you.

2.5 Stars
CW: People choose to take cyanide tablets rather than got to concentration camps.

Excellent book set in Melbourne about 16 year old Jamie whose family is coping with the death of his father - he and his Mum have to also care for Oscar, Jamie's younger brother who has Down Syndrome. Jamie meets Zara and things seem to be moving forward as he discovers that Zara, like him, has a sibling with a severe disability-in this case, autism. Then his Mum has to fly to Perth for the weekend and Jamie volunteers to look after Oscar and take him to all his activities, even if it means catching public transport and missing dates with Zara. But then there is huge storm in Perth and flights are delayed and his Mum doesn't come home, so Jamie gets Oscar through a Monday (while trying to catch up with his accelerated Year 12 classes) with no word from his Mum, then a Tuesday...Jamie tries ringing his aunt in Perth -no answer, his Mum's phone -no answer what has happened? Suddenly Jamie is very scared - if he calls the police, social services will come and take Oscar away. Jamie has lost his Dad, possibly his Mum, he can't lose Oscar too? Soon a few days becomes a week with no word and Jamie is dipping into his own bank account to buy food for them...the reader is hooked on how Jamie will cope and what has happened to his mother and aunt.

Very realistic portrayal of what it is like to have a disabled child in your household ( speaking from experience with my autistic son) . The author also presents a feasible reason for the lack of communication by the mother and aunt- a very plausible scenario that plays heavily on the notion that parents of disabled children often become very insular and cut themselves off form others to the point that if something happens to them, only the closest family members will realise that something is wrong because they have built up a wall between themselves and the outside world. I'd be interested to know what prompted the author to write this book as they do not appear to have disabled children themselves.½

This review was written by my ten year old daughter who read this book at school:

"It was really good! It explains all about Miri's freedom and life before the nazis took her and her family.
It got a bit creepy when they got delivered to the ghetto but it is really heartwarming.
I definitely give this book 10 out of 10!"

This was an interesting story about a girl who dreamed of being a ballerina and I enjoyed all the ballet poses and terminology. However, I found it rather unbelievable that Ditty was able to hide the fact she was doing ballet lessons for over five years from her parents who were strict orthodox Jews. Considering the limitations that were placed on Ditty because of her family's religious beliefs, the fact that no one suspected her, despite having lessons two and three times a week, a bit fanciful.

Not what I expected...this is parent trap set in Melbourne with 2 adopted girls discovering they are twins at a ballet school over Summer in Canberra and deciding to swap lives when they return home. (We know that they are twins from the initial prologue outlining their adoption). This was an interesting and engaging book from the start. I am not into dance at all but you don't need to be to read it. After the girls swap lives there are complications brought about by their respective boyfriends and a phantom texter "I know your secret" (whose identity I guessed immediately but younger readers might not). I found the ending with the VSD school agreeing to keep quiet when the swap is discovered absolutely absurd, but apart from that it is a fairly harmless look at pushy parents and nature versus nurture.

When her life’s passion is forbidden, how much will Ditty risk to follow her dream?

When Ditty Cohen first sees a ballet on TV, the beautiful, gravity-defying dancing captivates her. She’s instantly connected to the graceful performers, and realizes that her passion is to be a dancer. There’s just one problem: Ditty is from an ultra-orthodox Jewish family and her parents forbid her to take dance lessons.

Refusing to give up on her newfound love, Ditty starts dancing in secret. Her devotion to dance is matched only by her talent, but the longer Ditty pursues her dream, the more she must lie to her family. Caught between her passion and her faith, Ditty starts to question everything she believes in. How long can she keep her two worlds apart? And at what cost?

Dancing in the Dark is the dramatic, inspiring story about a girl who discovers the trials and triumphs of pursuing her greatest dream.

I was really excited about Pirouette. I love stories of twins and their mysterious connections. But.
It just didn't work out for me.

I gave it two shots, and both failed miserably. I couldn't finish it, for which I'm sorry. The problems were several, but the two that bugged me the most were detached narrative and very unrealistic dialogues. I know I shouldn't judge a story by the first few chapters, but if I don't get hooked by then, well.. I just won't.

So, no rating and no review.

A novel of twins separated at birth who are reunited by their involvement with ballet. The plot is somewhat standard and mostly unsurprising. One wants to keep dancing, the other does not, one's family is supportive, the other's thinks dancing is a hobby. Each girl meets a boy etc. However, I could easily see this becoming a popular read with younger teenaged girls. I would especially recommend it to fans of the television show Dance Academy.

This book was wonderful. The main character is part of a ultra-orthodox Jewish family who has prescribed appropriate activities for women and girls. Dancing is not one of them. However, the main character's only desire is to learn ballet.

I requested this on NetGalley when I was in the mood for a darker contemporary novel. By the time it was approved though, that mood have moved on. So I was sure I wouldn't enjoy it, and set about reading it well ahead of time so I could be sure to be finished by the day it needed to be reviewed. What actually happened: I flew through this book in a day and thoroughly enjoyed it! Dancing in the Dark opened my eyes to two worlds I have no experience with. Obviously, I know no Haredi Jewish people, and if you know me at all, you know I am no dancer.

The opening of Dancing in the Dark is a small prologue wherein our heroine, Ditty, is forced to chose between dance and her father. She's told that if she leaves for her performance, she is not to go back. It's painful to watch the struggle, but before we know what she decides, the prologue is over and the book begins. We are taken through Ditty's five-year-long journey of discovering the ballet and eventually enrolling in secret classes behind her parents' backs.

There are two ways to look at this novel, I think, and in my opinion, that will decide whether or not you like it. The story is about a girl who is raised in a very orthodox Jewish family. Throughout the novel she finds her passion and against her parents' wishes, decides to pursue those dreams. If you are a religious person who very much values the same things Ditty's family values, then you might not like Ditty as a character. That was just the opposite for me.

For me, Ditty, short for Yehudit, was a wonderful heroine. I thought she showed great tenacity and strength. It was a pleasure to read about her discovering herself through ballet. In her culture, she is not allowed even the most mundane things we take for granted: no jeans and t-shirts, no TV, no bacon (no bacon!), no classes with boys, no singing in front of boys. Her family is very, very religious, and holds firmly to the Jewish laws of the Torah. So through my eyes - my atheist eyes - seeing Ditty strike out against those oppressive rules was strong. For some, though, they may not like how she deceived her parents and went against her holy texts.

I'm not really sure if Ditty loses her faith throughout this book. By the end, it's clear she still considers herself Jewish, but not in the ultra-orthodox way she was before. I've never really read any books where the young protagonist struggles with her faith, so this was a new experience for me, and one I particularly enjoyed. Also learning about all the parts of Ditty's Haredi culture were fascinating, too. I'm terribly uneducated when it comes to Judaism - this is something I'll have to remedy soon.

There were a few drawbacks that really kept me from rating this higher, though. For one, Dancing in the Dark felt long at times. There were instances that felt very repetitive to me, and that took away some enjoyment. Also, there wasn't any character I could really connect to on any deep level. But I know that's because of me, and what I'm bringing to the book, not the other way around.

In the beginning, the author, Robyn Bavati, talks about how there will be words and phrases that the readers won't know, and boy was she right. The text was full of italicized words I had either never heard before or didn't know how to pronounce, or both. There was a glossary at the end of the text, but constantly flipping back and forth was a hassle, so I just read on. It wasn't hard to figure out what the words meant though - Bavati expertly wove them in with context so I never felt lost.

I highly recommend Dancing in the Dark. It's not only a fantastic ballet book, filled with wonderful descriptions of Ditty's schooling, but it's also an eye-opener in many other ways. I learned a lot about ultra-orthodox Jewish culture. Ditty was a wonderful heroine, with a believable voice. The story will also speak to those who struggle with their faith, or who struggle with reconciling their own wants with their parent's wishes.

A dramatic and moving story about a girl who folows her dream and finds herself questioning everything she believes in.

Ditty has a love, a forbidden one, but for once it is not boys. It is ballet. Her parents don't approve, so she dances in secret, and falls more and more in love and becomes more talented. How deep can she get while keeping her secrets and the essence of who she is?
Ditty was quite a character. I could feel her love for dancing across the page as well as the pain and conflict of slowly letting go of her beliefs and others that she holds dear in order to pursue what she loves and what she is good at.
The sense of family in this one is unique. I appreciate how some of the parents are involved and some are not, and the degrees in between. We can see the effects of when the parents try to suppress their kids from doing what they wanted and loved and then ones who knew when to let go and be more hands off. I also appreciated the teachers' involvement in this story, when one in particular stepped up when she strictly did not have to.
I also appreciated the scope of friendship that I saw in this book. Ditty's closest friend Sarah is amazing, and how she covered for her friend and supported her even if she didn't agree really spoke to me. Then there is Emma from the dance company, how Robyn wrote her in, accepting Ditty but still asking questions like any teenager would. My favorite though, is probably Ditty's cousin Linda. I loved reading her character development and transformation, as well as her loyalty to Ditty throughout her changes.
At first all of the unfamiliar Jewish terms got to me, and I spent a lot of time flipping between bookmarks on my kindle, but eventually the most popular words worked their way into my head and I was able to read more seamlessly. There was time of course given to explaining and demonstrating what Ditty and her family practiced, and it was needed because I for one, had no idea the scope of haredi (the ultra conservative Jewish beliefs and practices of her family.) It really molded the family and what they said, did and interacted with. Every facet of their lives really. I never felt like I was being preached at though, it just seemed matter of fact and way of life for the characters, and it was sad and realistic at the same time the conversations Ditty had with Linda about questioning if this is the only way to live and watching Ditty give up pieces of herself and her religion in order to dance. But, ultimately she was learning what she believed and following her heart.
Bottom line: Powerful transformation of a young girl into a beautiful dancer and what she had to give up to get there.

5* An interesting story about a young girl who grows up in an Adass family. Set in Melbourne with lots of local shops as a nice connector for our school readers, Ditty is torn by her increasing desire to learn ballet which is forbidden to her by her very Orthodox family. A range of issues including the divide between Adass and the rest of the Orthodox community is reflected in this book. A good read.