A Time for Dancing

Best friends throughout their entire childhoods, Samantha and Julie are devastated when Julie is diagnosed with cancer the summer before their senior year, and their friendship changes in many difficult ways.

Grade 7-10?A personal look at how terminal illness affects the lives of best friends and those around them. Juliana (Jules) and Samantha (Sam) have been dance partners since they were nine years old. The summer before their senior year holds promises of good times and hard work at the studio. Then Jules is diagnosed with diffuse histiocytic lymphoma and needs massive doses of chemotherapy immediately. Despite everyone trying to act "normal," Jules faces greater and more difficult choices each day. And Sam becomes increasingly confused as to how to live her own life and stay true to her dying best friend. Each girl, in turn, narrates a chapter, and family and friends' reactions to the crisis are genuinely portrayed. The impact of illness is accurately balanced with the rising crescendo of impending death. This novel compares favorably with Cynthia Grant's Phoenix Rising (Atheneum, 1989), Alden Carter's Sheila's Dying (Putnam, 1987; o.p.), and Lurlene McDaniel's series, "One Last Wish" (Bantam). While the ending is not upbeat, the closeness that the two teenagers feel and their bonding that transcends the body when death occurs come through clearly. A good choice.?Jana R. Fine, Clearwater Public Library System, FL
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Few YA dramas deal with the issue of terminal illness as intimately as this gripping first novel, which alternates between the points of view of Juliana, at 16 a gifted dancer, and her "one-and-only" best friend, Samantha. The girls' initial concerns about boyfriends and dance class seem trivial after Jules is diagnosed with histiocytic lymphoma, a deadly form of cancer. Through graphic depictions of what follows?endless sessions of chemotherapy, emergency runs to the hospital and Jules's periodic escapes into a dream state?readers will feel the young victim's weariness as she fights against the body which has betrayed her. They will also experience Sammie's complex responses as she watches her friend embark on a "solo journey" toward death. The dissipation of Jules's hopes, her growing acceptance of the inevitable, and the reactions of peers and family members are hauntingly true to life; they camouflage the less credible episodes (Jules's brilliant performance in a dance concert during the last weeks of her life). Although the subject matter may be too intense for some, others will come away from this book with a deeper respect for mortality. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 7^-12. Juliana and Samantha have been inseparable since dancing-school days at age nine. They perform in a ballet company when not carrying on their ebulliently normal high-school lives. Then Julie is diagnosed with lymphoma, and normal becomes a thing of the past. As a story of friendship and, ultimately, as a story of death and saying good-bye, A Time for Dancing will hold fans of this genre glued to the page and with good reason. The story is told in chapters narrated alternately by each girl; the novel's characters, plot action, and dialogue sparkle with authenticity. Although the intensity of the teens' friendship is a bit startling at first--Sam refers to "Jules" as her "one and only" --it is still quite believable. Both friends confront the horrors of Julie's chemotherapy and other ramifications of her disease with courage, tenacity, and, finally, a sense of helplessness. Strong language could be problematic for some libraries, yet the novel resonates with grace and power. Anne O'Malley