the arts

There are two things in YA that will make me pick up a book no matter what. The first are stories set in a juvenile detention facility. It’s not that I love seeing bad kids; rather, it’s about how these stories — and shows like Beyond Scared Straight, which I love — are about how adults are not giving up on teenagers who do dumb things. Rather, they’re stories about how there’s so much hope to make the lives of these teenagers better.

The second thing in YA that I can never get enough of is the ballet story. I used to take ballet as a kid, and I think that might be part of why. It’s a dream that never was for me, despite making a pact when my best friend at age 5 that we’d grow up together and become ballerinas together.

Neither of us are ballerinas.

Because there’s been a handful of ballet-themed YA on shelves this year and because it’s such a perennially great topic in YA with a lot of timelessness to it (competition, drive, and dance don’t change when a book is 10 years old, as opposed to brand new), I thought I’d pull together a book old booklist. All of these books, some old, some new, and some to hit shelves in the near future, include ballet as a major part of the story. Likewise, I have included non-fiction on this list because it absolutely thrills me to see that the non-fiction in YA about ballerinas we’re seeing isn’t about the ideal white girl dancers we are so accustomed to seeing. They’re different.

All descriptions are from WorldCat unless otherwise noted. If there are other ballet themed YA books I missed, I’d love to know in the comments. And as always, I once again plea that someone write me a book about a black male dancer, a la the story of the boy in “Save The Last Dance.” I want to read that story so bad. I suspect many a YA reader does, too.

Audition by Stasia Ward Kehoe: When sixteen-year-old Sara, from a small Vermont town, wins a scholarship to study ballet in New Jersey, her ambivalence about her future increases even as her dancing improves.

Bunheads by Sophie Flack: Hannah Ward, nineteen, revels in the competition, intense rehearsals, and dazzling performances that come with being a member of Manhattan Ballet Company’s corps de ballet, but after meeting handsome musician Jacob she begins to realize there could be more to her life.

Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy by Elizabeth Kiem: After a harrowing defection to the United States in 1982, Russian teenager Marya and her father settle in Brooklyn, where Marya is drawn into a web of intrigue involving her gift of foresight, her mother’s disappearance, and a boy she cannot bring herself to trust.

Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You by Doreen Cirrone: Sixteen-year-old Kayla, a ballet dancer with very large breasts, and her sister Paterson, an artist, are both helped and hindered by classmates as they confront sexism, conformity, and censorship at their high school for the arts while still managing to maintain their sense of humor.

Feuds by Avery Hastings: n 2135 Ohio, Davis Morrow, a fiercely ambitious ballerina, has been primed to be smarter, stronger, and more graceful than the lowly Imperfects but when a deadly virus, the Narxis, begins killing Davis’s friends she turns to Cole, a mysterious boy with his own agenda, and their love may be the only thing that can save her world.

Jersey Tomatoes Are The Best by Maria Padian: When fifteen-year-old best friends Henry and Eve leave New Jersey, one for tennis camp in Florida and one for ballet camp in New York, each faces challenges that put her long-cherished dreams of the future to the test.

Marie, Dancing by Carolyn Meyer: A fictionalized autobiography of Marie Van Goethem, the impoverished student from the Paris Opéra ballet school who became the model for Edgar Degas’s famous sculpture, “The Little Dancer.”

On Pointe by Lorie Ann Grover: In this novel written in free verse, Clare and her grandfather must deal with changes in their lives when Clare’s summer growth spurt threatens to end her dream of becoming a ballet dancer and her grandfather suffers a stroke.

Pointe by Brandy Colbert: Four years after Theo’s best friend, Donovan, disappeared at age thirteen, he is found and brought home and Theo puts her health at risk as she decides whether to tell the truth about the abductor, knowing her revelation could end her life-long dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer.

Rose Sees Red by Cecil Castellucci: In the 1980s, two teenaged ballet dancers–one American, one Russian–spend an unforgettable night in New York City, forming a lasting friendship despite their cultural and political differences.

Taking Flight by Michaela DePrince: The memoir of Michaela DePrince, who lived the first few years of her live in war-torn Sierra Leone until being adopted by an American Family. Now seventeen, she is one of the premiere ballerinas in the United States

The Broken Hearted by Amelia Kahaney: When seventeen-year-old Anthem Fleet is suddenly transformed into an all-powerfull superhero, she must balance her old life with the dark secret of who she has become. (This description doesn’t tell you that Anthem was a ballerina before the transformation).

The Melting Season by Celeste Conway: Giselle, the sheltered daughter of two famous ballet dancers, comes to terms with her relationships with both her late father and her mother, realizing some important truths that help her move forward both in her life and with her own dancing.

The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma: Orianna and Violet are ballet dancers and best friends, but when the ballerinas who have been harassing Violet are murdered, Orianna is accused of the crime and sent to a juvenile detention center where she meets Amber and they experience supernatural events linking the girls together.

Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton: Gigi, Bette, and June, three top students at an exclusive Manhattan ballet school, have seen their fair share of drama. Free-spirited new girl Gigi just wants to dance — but the very act might kill her. Privileged New Yorker Bette’s desire to escape the shadow of her ballet star sister brings out a dangerous edge in her. And perfectionist June needs to land a lead role this year or her controlling mother will put an end to her dancing dreams forever. When every dancer is both friend and foe, the girls will sacrifice, manipulate, and backstab to be the best of the best.

Unlovely by Celeste Conway: A boy is torn between his newfound love for a ballet dancer and the fear that she might be out to kill him.

Up To This Pointe by Jennifer Longo (January 19, 2016): Harper is a dancer. She and her best friend, Kate, have one goal: becoming professional ballerinas. And Harper won’t let anything—or anyone—get in the way of The Plan, not even the boy she and Kate are both drawn to.

Harper is a Scott. She’s related to Robert Falcon Scott, the explorer who died racing to the South Pole. So when Harper’s life takes an unexpected turn, she finagles (read: lies) her way to the icy dark of McMurdo Station . . . in Antarctica. Extreme, but somehow fitting—apparently she has always been in the dark, dancing on ice this whole time. And no one warned her. Not her family, not her best friend, not even the boy who has somehow found a way into her heart. (Description via Goodreads).

Various Positions by Martha Schabas: When talented, dedicated fourteen-year-old Georgia Slade becomes a student in an elite Toronto ballet academy, her confusing feelings toward one of her teachers lead to disaster.