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Show-Stopping Books: Gifts for the Artistic Readers in Your Life (YA Edition)

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Abby and I were talking recently about the growth of performance as a theme in kid lit. There have been a ton of books exploring different forms of artistic expression in the last few years, and we thought it would be neat to highlight some of these books. It’s our hope these’ll offer ideas for book lists, displays, and maybe even a few holiday gift purchases. I’m tackling young adult titles, and you can hop over to Abby’s blog today and get a peek at picture books and middle grade titles.

Note these lists are in no way inclusive, and we’d love any other suggestions you have. All descriptions are via Worldcat.

Dance

When pulling together the titles, I noticed there are definitely holes in this area. Are there any recent titles featuring a male lead dancer? What about hip hop dancers? Jazz? The ones here are a nice mix of contemporary and historical novels.

Strings Attached by Judy Blundell: When she drops out of school and struggles to start a career on Broadway in the fall of 1950, seventeen-year-old Kit Corrigan accepts help from an old family friend, a lawyer said to have ties with the mob, who then asks her to do some favors for him.

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.

dancergirl by Carol Tanzman: A friend posted a video of me dancing online and now I’m now longer Alicia Ruffino. I’m dancergirl—and suddenly it’s like me against the world—everyone’s got opinions. My admirers want more, the haters hate, my best friend Jacy—even he’s acting weird. And some stranger isn’t content to just watch anymore. Ali, dancergirl. Whatever you know me as, however you’ve seen me online, I’ve trained my whole life to be the best dancer I can be. But if someone watching has their way, I could lose more than just my love of dancing. I could lose my life. (Description via Goodreads)

Leap by Jodi Lundgren: Having just turned 15 and gone through her parents’ divorce, Natalie and her best friend Sasha are going to be practicing with their dance team all summer, but her friendship with Sasha goes on the rock, and her relationship with her boyfriend Kevin who is Sasha’s brother goes too far. Will she be taking on all these changes with confidence?

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.

Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher: In 1940s Chicago, fifteen-year-old Ruby hopes to escape poverty by becoming a taxi dancer in a nightclub, but the work has unforeseen dangers and hiding the truth from her family and friends becomes increasingly difficult.

When the Stars Go Blue by Caridad Ferrer: Soledad Reyes decides to dance Carmen as part of a drum and bugle corps competition, not knowing if it will help or harm her chance of becoming a professional ballet dancer but eager to pursue new options, including a romance with the boy who invited her to audition. Reviewed here.

Music

This category has so many titles to pick from, though again, I find it’s heavy on female leads. I’ve included music in a variety of forms. I’d be interested in hearing more recent titles featuring male leads, non-traditional music, or other facets within music.

Adios, Nirvana by Conrad Wesselhoeft: As Seattle sixteen-year-old Jonathan helps a dying man come to terms with a tragic event he experienced during World War II, Jonathan begins facing his own demons, especially the death of his twin brother, helped by an assortment of friends, old and new. Reviewed here.

Amplified by Tara Kelly: When privileged seventeen-year-old Jasmine Kiss gets kicked out of her house by her father, she takes what is left of her meager savings and flees to Santa Cruz, California, to pursue her dream of becoming a rock musician. Reviewed here.

A Little Wanting Song by Cath Crowley: One Australian summer, two very different sixteen-year-old girls–Charlie, a talented but shy musician, and Rose, a confident student longing to escape her tiny town–are drawn into an unexpected friendship, as told in their alternating voices. Reviewed here.

Rival by Sara Bennett-Wealer: Two high school rivals compete in a prestigious singing competition while reflecting on the events that turned them from close friends to enemies the year before. Reviewed here.

Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez: Just before the most important violin competition of her career, seventeen-year-old violin prodigy Carmen faces critical decisions about her anti-anxiety drug addiction, her controlling mother, and a potential romance with her most talented rival.

Notes From an Accidental Band Geek by Erin Dionne: French horn virtuoso Elsie Wyatt resents having to join her high school’s marching band playing a mellophone, but finally finds a sense of belonging that transcends the pressure she has always felt to be as good as her father, principal french horn player in the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John: Eighteen-year-old Piper becomes the manager for her classmates’ popular rock band, called Dumb, giving her the chance to prove her capabilities to her parents and others, if only she can get the band members to get along. Reviewed here.

Rock Star Superstar by Blake Nelson: When Pete, a talented bass player, moves from playing in the high school jazz band to playing in a popular rock group, he finds the experience exhilarating even as his new fame jeopardizes his relationship with girlfriend Margaret.

Glitz by Philana Marie Boles: Sixteen-year-old orphan Ann Michelle runs away from her grandmother’s house in Toledo, Ohio, with a new friend who is intent on seeking her own fame while the teenagers follow a hip-hop musician to New York City.

Theater

In pulling these titles together, it felt like there were a lot more end-of-book productions than actual books about theater or the theatrical arts. I’d love more suggestions in this category. I stuck to books where theater played a pivotal part in the story.

Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev (series): Seventeen-year-old Bertie strives to save Theater Illuminata, the only home she has ever known, but is hindered by the Players who magically live on there, especially Ariel, who is willing to destroy the Book at the center of the magic in order to escape into the outside world.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by David Levithan and John Green: When two teens, one gay and one straight, meet accidentally and discover that they share the same name, their lives become intertwined as one begins dating the other’s best friend, who produces a play revealing his relationship with them both. Reviewed here.

Dramarama by E Lockhart: Spending their summer at Wildewood Academy, an elite boarding school for the performing arts, tests the bond between teens Sadye and her best friend Demi.

Withering Tights by Louise Rennison: Self-conscious about her knobby knees but confident in her acting ability, fourteen-year-old Tallulah spends the summer at a Yorkshire performing arts camp that, she is surprised to learn, is for girls only.

My Life, the Theater, and Other Tragedies by Allen Zadoff: While working backstage on a high school production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” sixteen-year-old Adam develops feelings for a beautiful actress–which violates an unwritten code–and begins to overcome the grief that has controlled him since his father’s death nearly two years earlier.

Carter Finally Gets it by Brent Crawford (series): Awkward freshman Will Carter endures many painful moments during his first year of high school before realizing that nothing good comes easily, focus is everything, and the payoff is usually incredible.

Legend by Marie Lu

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In Legend, America has been divided into two: the Republic on the west coast and the Colonies on the east. They’re at war with each other and no one remembers that the country used to be whole. A terrible plague grips the Republic. The poor suffer most from it, since they are unable to afford the vaccine. Living in this world are our two fifteen year old protagonists: Day, a male fugitive from the law who’s become notorious for several carefully-planned crimes; and June, a female prodigy who has been trained as a Republic soldier. When June’s brother is murdered, ostensibly by Day, the Republic sends her to hunt him down. And there is our story, told in alternating chapters from Day’s and June’s perspectives.
I appreciated Lu’s honesty with her depictions of June’s participation in the violence, which is a major part of the novel. June has been raised in a culture that sanctions torture and is at perpetual war with the Colonies. She’s been singled out by the leaders of this culture, been molded by them into their perfect soldier, a soldier that will do anything for the Republic. Yes, she has qualms, and yes, she refrains from the worst of what her superiors do, but she is a participant in the violent process. In one scene, she watches a fellow soldier torture a Colonies spy in order to learn how it’s done – after all, she will have to do it herself one day. I’m glad Lu didn’t flinch from showing us this. It’s realistic and creates a compelling character arc for June.
The first thing I noticed about Legend was its typefaces: gold sans serif font for Day and black serif font for June. As a teen, I would probably have loved this. As an adult, I wasn’t as thrilled. The gold is a bit too light for comfortable reading and I always prefer serif fonts on a printed page.
It seems like the color/font switches were used to compensate for a weakness in voice differentiation. When a story is told from more than one first-person perspective, there’s always the possibility that the voices will be too similar to one another. In fact, in writing this review, I had to go back to the book to look up which character was in the gold font and which character in the black.
I would have liked to see more backstory. This is a complaint I have with a lot of dystopias that are intended to be series. Lu sets up a pretty interesting premise with the Republic versus the Colonies, but we never learn why the schism occurred. Really, that’s half the fun of a dystopia – learning what terrible thing (or things!) it was that caused humanity to be in such a sad spot. Often this is revealed in second or third books, but I always feel its lack in the first. It causes the world to feel underdeveloped, and world-building is so important in science fiction. (The Hunger Games actually never revealed this information, and it’s something I’ve had to make my peace with.)
Here I am sounding like a broken record, but I think Legend should have been written in past tense. There’s a lot of action, but it’s not a straight up action novel (there’s a lot of wallowing in prison cells, for instance), and the present tense feels forced.
With all of these criticisms, you may think I didn’t enjoy Legend, but I did, and quite a bit. It’s a good read and one I’d recommend to dystopia fans. Divergent does both action and voice a little better, but both books have the same feel (lots of action, a small but tough female protagonist, several physical tests that must be overcome, big government secrets). To its credit, Legend wraps itself up in a single volume, which I always appreciate. This is not to say there isn’t a sequel (the website for the book is “legendtheseries.com” after all), and I’ll be happy to read it once its published.
Review copy picked up at BEA. Legend is available now.

Three Mini-Reviews

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The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern

While reading The Night Circus, I felt like I was the only one to not quite understand the immense hype that has surrounded this novel since way before its publication. Revolving around a mystical circus that appears without warning and features stunning beautiful attractions, strange illusions, and compelling players, The Night Circus also features the battle between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been groomed for this showdown since youth and gradually fall in love with one another.

However, one thing I realized while reading is that for me to fall in love with a book, I need a gripping, well-developed plot and three-dimensional, deep characters. The Night Circus had neither. While the writing in this was utterly beautiful and the descriptions deep and luscious, it felt like Morgenstern relied too much upon descriptions, to the neglect of plot and characters. And while there was a central ‘competition’ that this book revolved around, it really didn’t feel that gripping to me and I never quite felt the intensity of the stakes, partially because of the shallow characters. The characters, especially Celia and Marco themselves, never felt well-developed. While I did get plenty of descriptions of the characters’ appearances and clothing, the characters themselves were all just cardboard cutouts, with not a lot of emotional depth. Other readers (in fact, most people) seem to adore this book, however, so those in the mood for lush descriptions and an atmosphere you can fall into should not hesitate to pick it up.

Book purchased.

The Daughters Join the Party, by Joanna Philbin.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this series thus far, which follows three daughters of celebrities as they go about their lives in New York City and seek to establish their own identities apart from their famous parents. There was Lizzie, who became a model in the shadow of her own supermodel mother; Carina, who sought to escape from her media conglomerate father’s influence; and Hudson, who tried to achieve a solo singing career in a style much different than her pop diva mother Holla (shades of Madonna). Each of the previous three novels wasn’t anything heavy or substantial, but they were cute, and portrayed issues that, beyond the trappings of wealth and privilege, girls could relate to.

This book, the fourth in the series, just seemed tacked on to me and really didn’t seem to fit with the other three, as it introduced another character entirely, one who hadn’t even been in the series beforehand. I understand that in high school, students make new friends, but why add another character to this group of best friends if the new girl, Emma Conway, the daughter of an aspiring presidential candidate, doesn’t really even interact with the original three at all? The plot’s conclusion also just seemed too rushed and easily wrapped up to me, especially the subplot regarding Emma’s brother. Fans of the series will still enjoy this book, however, especially with the appearances from the original Daughters and Philbin’s light, breezy tone. I can see fans of The Mother-Daughter Bookclub and the Gallagher Girls books enjoying this tone particularly.

Copy generously provided by publisher.

Just Your Average Princess, by Kristina Springer
Jamie Edwards loves working at her family’s pumpkin patch. Especially during the fall season, it’s the place to be in her small town of Average, Illinois, where there’s not much to do but cruise the strip at night. She feels needed there, loves the people in her community, and also, and most importantly, it’s where her longtime crush Danny works. But when her cousin Milan, the famous daughter of two Hollywood celebrities, comes to visit, Jamie is shocked that they’re not as close as she had anticipated they’d be. Milan turns down her nose at everything in town–the people, the patch, even Jamie herself. And even worse than Danny being seemingly attracted to Milan is Milan’s announcement that she is planning to run for Pumpkin Princess, the town pageant that Jamie has been dreaming of winning since she was a little girl!

I really enjoy Kristina Springer’s writing style: The Espressologist, her debut novel, was one of my favorite little-known books that I read last year, and Just Your Average Princess has the same endearing, adorable atmosphere pervading it. There aren’t any serious issues in this book, so it is fairly light, but to the characters, their problems still feel important. However, to me, this novel took that adorable atmosphere a bit too far, as Jamie came off as a bit of a goody-goody. I understand that there are some people who truly enjoy their towns and genuinely enjoy helping out at home, but the level of outrage that Jamie felt when Milan didn’t meet her “standards,” especially when it came to issues of food, was a bit over the top. Jamie didn’t feel realistic and wholesome, she just came off as judgmental. Additionally, the novel’s conclusion and reconciliation seemed way too sudden for me–there really weren’t any clues about what spearheaded it, so the characters’ changes of emotion really had no weight behind them. On the whole though, I did enjoy this light, quick read, and it will definitely find its place on the shelves.

Copy borrowed from my library.

Pearl by Jo Knowles

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Bean, whose real name is Pearl, doesn’t have a father. At the start of the book, we meet her and best friend Henry (also without a father) as they indulge in their favorite daytime tv soaps. We learn pretty quickly, too, that Bean lives with her mother, who she doesn’t like, and she lives with her grandfather Gus. Although she’s not entirely upfront about her feelings toward her grandfather, we know she likes him because she resents her mother for being so mean spirited toward him. Clearly something happened in the past between her mother and grandfather that caused such split feelings, but we aren’t privy to it. At least, not before her grandfather dies.

After Gus’s death, secrets begun unraveling, as we learn why it is that Bean’s mother is spending so much time with her friend Claire, acting more like teenagers than parents. Bean always thought this behavior came because her mother had her when she was only a teenager, but as her mother and Claire become more and more irresponsible adults, Bean starts to challenge her mother. And then, everything comes together for Bean, as she discovers her mother’s feelings toward Gus may have been justified and her own birth may have been out of spite toward him.

Pearl is a family drama through and through. Although it’s a shorter book, I found the pacing to be slower, and I found both Bean and Henry to be less-than-exciting characters. The reason for this, I think, is that this book felt much less like a book about Bean and her uncovering of the family secrets and much more a book about Bean’s mother’s problems. Bean’s mother is — here’s your spoiler warning — a lesbian, and her entire hatred toward Gus comes from his walking in on her and Claire making out many years in the past. Gus had been kind to Bean because she was the result of her mother’s poor choices and attempts to change who she was in order to make Gus happy.

Where there was much opportunity to make this a story about Bean, I didn’t think it was quite fulfilled. I found myself really aching for her and aching for Henry, as both of these characters were fatherless and that played into a lot of the baggage they carried individually and together. Both of them came from eerily similar backgrounds with their fathers, actually; both had been abandoned and left to be raised by their mothers. In neither case, though, were the characters angry or frustrated with their lot in this. Rather, Bean spilled her feelings of hurt and rage toward her mother through and through, and as a reader, I couldn’t quite buy that she would never once feel that sort of anger toward the father who left her. Sure, it was easy for anger to manifest toward the person she sees everyday and the person who made her feel like she was unwanted, but that same feeling of abandonment was one she should have voiced toward her father a little more. Bean really served more as a way for her mother to tell her story. Bean lacked for me voice and agency, and the story was rife with opportunity for her to develop both.

There were a series of coincidences that happened about 3/4 of the way through the book that had me fearful this book would go down an unnecessarily melodramatic road, but fortunately, Knowles didn’t take the story that way. Instead, she let Henry and Bean both have their family struggles. I haven’t talked much about Henry because, as much as he’s a huge part of Bean’s life, and as much as we get to know about his fatherless situation and his mother’s hermit-like existence (cured when Bean’s mom and Claire invite her out for a girls’ day at the mall in the wake of Gus’s death), we really don’t get to know him well. He loves daytime soaps and he likes spending time with Bean, but otherwise, he’s flat. I would have loved more from him — I think this was the kind of story that could have been told from his perspective or had his voice thrown in periodically, as he could have helped anchor this story back to Bean, rather than her mother.

Despite all of the things that didn’t work for me in the story, there was one element that really did work for me, and that was the use of Bean’s mom’s journal in the story. Because Bean is the vessel for the story, we get everything through her perspective. When her mother gives Bean her journal though, we’re given her mother’s voice first hand. She has the chance to speak for herself, and it’s here — albeit too late — that we see Bean finally putting the pieces together and developing a voice for herself.

Even though this book wasn’t my favorite, I definitely see the readership it appeals to. Those who have liked Knowles’s other works will certainly want to check this one out, as will those who like more adult-flavored books. Those teens who read and enjoy family dramas or more contemporary classics, will find a lot to appreciate in this story.

I purchased my own copy of this book. Pearl is available now.