When It All Syncs Up

In Ameyaw’s thoughtful and absorbing debut, a trio of teenagers explore identities and relationships through their artistic gifts. After she’s rejected for a ballet apprenticeship, Ghanaian Canadian 16-year-old Aisha Bimi returns to Toronto from her majority-white western Canada ballet academy. With her caring stockbroker father in Tokyo and her estranged former professional ballerina mother forbidden from contacting her, Aisha struggles with an emerging dissociative disorder and relies on imaginary relationships with celebrated Black ballerinas, including Michaela DePrince, for reassurance. In Toronto, she wins a place at Korean Canadian best friend Neil’s public arts high school, where Aisha develops a possible romance with musician Ollie, of Algerian heritage, and cultivates an unexpected affinity for modern dance. As Aisha navigates her own internal challenges, however, she becomes increasingly disturbed about Neil’s growing reliance on alcohol and teams up with Ollie to help their friend. Via Aisha’s sensitive voice, Ameyaw steadily builds layered suspense about the crisis that separated Neil and Aisha three years prior and destroyed Aisha’s relationship with her mother to craft a tightly plotted and smoothly written novel that tackles issues of racism in classical ballet alongside mental health and body image conflicts. Ages 14–up. (June)