Audition by Stasia Ward Kehoe
Release Date: October 13, 2011
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Age Group: Young Adult
Shelfability: Acquire/Borrow
Pages: 464
Format: Advance Reader Copy
Source: Author
Interest: Debut
Challenge: 2011 Debut Author Challenge
When high school junior Sara wins a coveted scholarship to study ballet, she must sacrifice everything for her new life as a professional dancer-in-training. Living in a strange city with a host family, she's deeply lonely-until she falls into the arms of Remington, a choreographer in his early twenties. At first, she loves being Rem's muse, but as she discovers a surprising passion for writing, she begins to question whether she's chosen the right path. Is Rem using her, or is it the other way around? And is dancing still her dream, or does she need something more? This debut novel in verse is as intense and romantic as it is eloquent.
A beautifully told novel in verse from debut author, Stasia Ward Kehoe.
I love reading novels in verse. The gift of some authors to be able to tell an emotionally powerful story with just a few words. It blows my mind!
Although I wasn’t familiar with some of the literature pertaining to the specifics of ballet, I never felt lost, I just simply imagined the graceful moves that I’ve seen ballerinas preform several times.
Sara, at the age of sixteen, is a child in many ways when she arrives in the city to fulfill her ballet scholarship. Readers will watch Sara grow as the novel progresses. Watch her make mistakes, mature, and loose the innocence she once had at her family home.
Stasia skims the surface on some of the darker moments that we often hear about with dancing at Sara’s level, including ignored injuries and eating disorders. I liked, however, that she did not focus on those aspects, but rather on the dancing itself and the struggles that Sara faced in that alone.
Audition is a fascinating novel, even for those with no prior experience or interest in dance. This isn’t a novel about ballet. It’s a novel about finding yourself and growing up.