Ellie and the Bunheads - Hardcover

Warner, Sally

3.18

22 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679882294 ISBN 13: 9780679882299

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1997

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The author of the highly acclaimed Dog Years and Some Friend returns with a timely look at the highly competitive world of professional dance. Thirteen-year-old Ellie Lane isn't sure she's cut out to be a bunhead--one of those girls with their hair tightly knotted in a bun and leg-warmers fashionably scrunched around their ankles. She loves to dance but with ballet class every afternoon there's hardly any time to see her friends or pursue other interests. Competition is so intense that her best friend has a private coach and another is seeing a shrink. And then there's her mother who's pressuring her to audition for the prestigious Philadelphia Dance Theater. It's just too much! But by the time audition day arrives, Ellie finds a way to take her life and its decisions into her own hands. Dealing frankly but humorously with real-life issues like self-esteem, depression, parental problems, and young love, Sally Warner proves once again that she has her finger squarely on the pulse of the middle-grade reader.

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Review:

As if peer pressure isn't enough, Ellie gets it from her mother and ballet teacher, too. "Suck in some of that hamburger, Ellie." "Don't eat any junk ... you know you don't want any pimples during your audition." If Ellie has to eat her mother's fat-free lasagna again, she thinks she'll puke! Truth is, Ellie is tired of sacrificing after-school fun, friends, and pizza for a chance in the prestigious Philadelphia Dance Theater. She may be one of the best bunheads (ballet dancers) in Mrs. Hawkins's class, but she's not sure if she wants to give up a normal teenage life in order to be a professional dancer. If everyone else would stop offering advice and yelling expectations at her, maybe--just maybe--Ellie could decide what to do for herself! Charming, delightful, and filled with great dialogue, this novel is sure to resonate with girls twirling into their early teenage years.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Ellie, turning 13, is under pressure--a ballet audition, a milestone in her potential career, approaches. With ambitions for her daughter, Ellie's mother monitors her eating, attempts to choose her friends, and expects her to audition without necessarily taking Ellie's opinion into account. The pros and cons of a career in ballet are cleverly explored through several interviews Ellie conducts, with an enthusiastic child just starting out, a high-school senior who is giving up the life, and a dance teacher. Ellie, a girl of great individuality, chafes at the ``ugly'' aspects of competition and acts decisively to make her choice: to be the best in the dance world, where she ultimately feels at home. A paragraph of Ellie's comments on different aspects of her appearance opens each chapter; these underscore the obsessions encountered in the dance world, about which Ellie attempts to be sensible: She resolves to eat chocolate only on special occasions, ``like a day of the week that ends with y.'' Ellie's experiences and observations ring true, and the ways she solves her problems make for an admirable character. (Fiction. 11-13) -- Copyright �1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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