Waiting On Wednesday: Audition by Stasia Ward Kehoe

Whenever I get a bad cold I get out my comfort books. But there are only so many times I can read Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield. I wondered aloud on Twitter, "Twitter, are there any YA ballet books coming out soon?" Almost immediately Gretchen McNeil and Carolina V. Miller came back with this lovely book.


Audition by Stasia Ward Kehoe

Seventeen-year-old Sara's dream of becoming a star ballerina is challenged when she falls for Remington, an older choreographer. Instead of success onstage, she becomes Rem's muse, which is a future she never considered--and one that threatens to break her heart.

Audition is available from Viking October 13, 2011.

Girl Friday also drew my attention to this Australian book published by Penguin last year, Dancing in the Dark by Robyn Bavati.

He tossed her into the air as if she were weightless, and just for a moment she seemed suspended there, defying gravity. I couldn't take my eyes off her. I knew what she was feeling. It was in every movement of every limb.

Here was a power I had never seen before, a kind of haunting loveliness I had never imagined. Seeing it made me long for something, I didn't know what . . .

Ditty was born to dance, but she was also born Jewish. When her strictly religious parents won't let her take ballet lessons, Ditty starts to dance in secret. But for how long can she keep her two worlds apart? And at what cost?

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

Until Audition comes out I'll have to whet my ballet appetite with Dancing in the Dark.