cover image WINNIE DANCING ON HER OWN

WINNIE DANCING ON HER OWN

Jennifer Richard Jacobson, , illus. by Alissa Imre Geis. . Houghton, $15 (96pp) ISBN 978-0-618-13287-4

Jacobson (Moon Sandwich Mom) creates in third-grader Winnie a resourceful heroine who knows her own mind. As the novel opens, Winnie makes peanut butter and banana sandwiches: "It was Winnie's job to make a healthy lunch for herself and her father. She took her job very seriously." Though her mother died soon after Winnie was born, she and her father speak easily and openly about her mother. In addition to a supportive father, she has two best friends, Vanessa and Zoe. But when the two girls want to join ballet classes on Tuesday afternoons, the threesome's usual library-going day, Winnie is crestfallen; she "danced like a goose with something stuck in her throat." The author demonstrates her intimate knowledge of elementary school dynamics. At a sleepover, "the three friends lay on their backs. It was easier to be truthful this way." Jacobson conveys Winnie's hurt feelings as a stronger bond inevitably forms between the two aspiring dancers, leaving Winnie out. But her brief stint on the periphery also presents Winnie with a rare opportunity to see another side of her father. This uplifting tale speaks to the emerging independence of all grade-schoolers. Ages 7-10. (Aug.)