Second Best - Elizabeth Bernard

*** - The dancing is beautifully described, and it's nice to see Leah acting like a human being rather than like a wind-up music box ballet dancer. Other than that - these are simplistic and moralistic. But I'm a sucker for books about dance, and I remember reading these when I was little - a nostalgia read.

In Second Best, Leah Stephenson must grapple with new and unpleasant emotions. First, she is jealous. Finola Darling, an extraordinarily talented new exchange student from the Royal Ballet School in England has come to study at SFBA, and all of a sudden, Leah is not the brightest and most talented student around. And even though Finola is helpful and kind, Leah has a hard time learning to share the spotlight.

To make matters worse, one of Leah's good friends may have to leave the Academy and give up on her career if she does not win the competition for a scholarship. Although Leah feels for Katrina, her competitiveness will not allow her to drop out of the competition, and Leah finds herself ostracized by the other girls after misunderstandings paint her in a bad light.

Leah's struggles with her own ego, with misunderstandings, and with her dance are interesting to read about. Although this focus means we spend a lot of time with Leah feeling misunderstood and sorry for herself, she is actually less irritating as a morose teenager than she is as her usual cardboard self. The ending was just a bit too pat, as I've become accustomed to in this series, but the descriptions of Finola's dancing in particular are lovely. I wish so much that I could have watched her - and that is the feeling a good ballet book should evoke.

Bottom line: Obviously read it for the dancing or out of nostalgia (in my case both), not for the after-school special 'girl book' story line. While there's not as much dancing in this installment as I would have liked, what is there is beautifully described.

Interested in the others?
Book 1: To Be a Dancer
Book 2: Center Stage
Book 3: Stars in Her Eyes
Book 4: Changing Partners
Book 6: Curtain Call
Book 7: Temptations
Book 8: Stepping Out
Book 9: Chance to Love
Book 10: Rising Star
Book 11: Starting Over
Book 12: Summer Dance

13 Little Blue Envelopes - Maureen Johnson

**1/2 - I thought it was lame. But then again, I've BEEN to Europe. And I found some of the stereotypical characterization downright offensive, including Ginny, who apparently is too self-absorbed to look around. Lame.

17-year-old Ginny Blackstone is on an adventure - not that she really chose to be. But her beloved Aunt Peg has left her a package of 13 little blue envelopes, each containing a destination and a task to complete before Ginny can open the next in the series. So Ginny leaves home on a whirlwind tour of Europe on her own - no guidebooks, no Internet, no phone - on a journey of self-discovery and to understand her aunt a bit better.

All in all I was disappointed with this book. The premise sounds very exciting - a little bit of an Amazing Race to self-discovery, and I think it could have served as a way to introduce teens to art, art history, and some of the cooler sights in Europe in a way that made them relevant to young adults. But it didn't.

Sure, Ginny runs around Europe, but not in a way that gives you even a cursory feel for the places she goes. While she's in the cities, she completes the 'tasks', but she doesn't take any time to go SEE anything while she's there. When she's in the Louvre, she walks by the Mona Lisa without seeing it and doesn't even bother to double back! The main character's complete lack of interest in the places she's going and the things she's seeing (it struck me particularly at the Vestal Virgins) just drove me completely nuts. At the end of her tour, she hasn't found anything that inspired her (aside from maybe 'The Boy'), and after actually travelling through Europe (it doesn't have to be anything like the Knapps) I just don't see how that could happen - even for a shy, insecure 17-year-old.

The 'mystery' of Aunt Peg and that resolution was interesting, I suppose, but it also felt a little pat to me. Ginny hadn't really seemed to have grown much through her experience except to recognize that her aunt was human and that she had been hurt by her. She gained in some independence (at least she learned how to work the tube...) Fine, but it certainly didn't make up for what I saw as a completely wasted opportunity to explore Europe or her sense of identity.

Bottom line: It's a whirlwind of European place names with absolutely no indication that the author has done anything other than flip through guidebooks and/or travel websites. In fact the author admits in the supplementary material that she hasn't been to about half of the places she describes! There's no sense of place at all. Utterly disappointing as I didn't 'see' any places I wanted to go, nor recognize any old favorites where I'd been.