Skip to main content
FREE SHIPPING for online orders over $75!
Close this alert
Just Dance

Just Dance

Current price: $15.99
Publication Date: September 12th, 2017
Publisher:
Margaret K. McElderry Books
ISBN:
9781481472524
Pages:
128

Description

Parents’ Choice Recommended

From Newbery Award–winning author Patricia MacLachlan comes a lyrical coming-of-age story about finding your own voice while learning to understand the people you love the most.

Sylvie Bloom wants to find something new and exciting this summer—at least more exciting than the cows, goats, and chickens on her family’s farm that she’s become accustomed to. Luckily, Sylvie’s teacher Mrs. Ludolf has the perfect idea. Sylvie can take over her husband Sheriff Ludolf’s column in the newspaper for the summer, reporting on all the important events that happen in their small Wyoming town. Sylvie is thrilled to have a new challenge, but she’s not sure she’ll actually see anything amazing. At least nothing like the things her mother saw when she traveled the world as a famous opera singer.

Sylvie can’t figure out why her mother would give up singing in front of thousands of people. Have she and her brother Nate been holding her mother back? And when her mother’s old duet partner James Grayson writes that he’s coming to perform nearby, will she be tempted to return to the stage, without them?

About the Author

Patricia MacLachlan (1938–2022) was the author of many well-loved novels and picture books, including Sarah, Plain and Tall, winner of the Newbery Medal; its sequels, Skylark and Caleb’s StoryEdward’s EyesThe True GiftWaiting for the MagicWhite Fur Flying; Fly Away; and Snow Horses. She lived in western Massachusetts.

Praise for Just Dance

*"MacLachlan intertwines past and present as she explores the truest meaning of family, home, and fulfillment....Sylvie’s close bonds with her brother and an array of supportive adults distinguish this memorable story, which showcases MacLachlan’s gifts for rich characterization, honest emotion, and deceptive simplicity." 
— Publisher's Weekly - starred review

"This short, quiet, lyrical novel moves along swiftly and is sprinkled with Sylvie’s touching poetry.....A good choice for empathetic young readers and most ­middle grade shelves"
— School Library Journal

"MacLachlan's economic writing is sure and knowing, and her characters are likable and fully realized....A quiet tale about finding your own voice."
— Kirkus Reviews