Marie, Dancing

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Marie, Dancing
by Carolyn Meyer
ISBN 0152051163
New York: Gulliver Books, 2005
272 pages
12+
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Annotation: Marie and her family are suffering because her mother is drinking all the time and Marie’s older sister spends all her money on expensive cloth. Then, Marie is asked to model for Degas, a famous artist, and finally earns money to support her family.

Summary: After Marie's father dies, life becomes harder with her mother drinking and her older sister spending money on her dancing fines. Then, Marie's whole world changes when the famous artist, Degas, makes her his model for a statue called Little Dancer, Age 14. Will her money be enough to support her family? Then, she meets a boy that she has been friends with when they were children. They become sweethearts but will Marie’s lies break them apart? A few days later, Marie goes to eat at a nearby café. Suddenly, she hears screams. It is her older sister being arrested because she was stealing a little bit of money from the man that she was going out with. Marie sneaks out of classes during breaks to visit her sister at the jailhouse. There she learns that her sister would not be let out until three months later. She will be kicked out of her dancing school for not attending classes. Marie is risking her place at the school by visiting her sister because she missed several performances. The tests are also coming out. The test is when a panel of judges see you perform and decide if you are good enough to stay. You can get kicked out if you have too many absences or if you dance incorrectly. Will Marie too be kicked out like her sister? Or will she be able to keep her place at the dancing school with the help of a miracle?

Critique: There really is a statue called Little Dancer, Age 14. By reading this book, I saw the process of how the statue was made. This story is a great and excellent story because you can feel Marie's feelings and how she really enjoys dancing. It tells you about the hardship of a ballerina and how they must work extremely hard to become a dancer. There were details in the story that made it more imaginable. This book was a historical fiction so it gave us some information about what life was like back then and what kind of clothes they wore.

Biography: Carolyn Meyer is the award-winning author of more than forty books for young people, including White Lilacs and Mary, Bloody Mary. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

[1] You can know more about Carolyn Meyer by visiting her website at http://www.readcarolyn.com/.

[2] http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Marie-Dancing/Carolyn-Meyer/e/9780152058791/?itm=1

[3] Retrieved the image from: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/imageviewer.asp?ean=9780152058791