cover image Summer Dance

Summer Dance

Lynn Swanson. CreateSpace (www.createspace.com), $12.99 paper (274p) ISBN 978-1-4637-4216-4

A dancer and dance instructor, Swanson clearly is well versed in the technique, language, and emotional intensity of ballet. Her novel centers on 13-year-old Sara, who is spending the summer at prestigious Lakewood Dance Camp. Family finances are tight, and Sara knows she must win a scholarship at the end of the session if she is to return the following year. That pressure causes Sara considerable angst throughout the summer, during which she watches the San Francisco Ballet perform Swan Lake, takes a class with one of that company's members, rehearses for and participates in various performances, and forges friendships with her cabin mates. Befitting the summer camp setting, drama abounds: looking for a missing friend in the darkness, Sara inadvertently causes Robin, a pompous girl for whom she is understudying, to injure her ankle, and Sara is later caught kissing Robin's boyfriend. A subplot featuring flirtations with boys at a neighboring camp adds a note of tentative summer romance. Young dancers should be easily drawn into the passions and frustrations of Sara and her friends and the nicely evoked upper Michigan setting. Ages 10%E2%80%9314.