Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

As in, I have yet to find the perfect graphic novel gift idea for Christmas. I did finish Dare You to Dance yesterday, though, and it’s highly probable my girls will enjoy it more than I did. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, really–it held my interest all the way through–but I was solidly a band kid. My girls, on the other hand, have all danced, and while they haven’t done traditional ballet, they know many of the positions; they’ll relate to the topic far better than I did. My real complaint is that Dare You to Dance feels more like a plot than a story, if that makes sense. Girls from all over are attending a summer ballet workshop in NYC, and the main character takes a while to figure out what relationships she’s forming with whom. The girl Gracie chooses to create a rivalry with isn’t exactly cooperating, but she has prestigious (and somewhat mysterious) ballet connections; as for the rest of her class, Gracie isn’t sure (for a while, at least) whom to trust–and not to trust. I just never forgot that it was a plot I was following; I couldn’t manage to get lost in the story. On the other hand, dancers may love a graphic novel about classical ballet, right? I suppose you’ll have to decide about this one yourselves.

In other news, my son went back to school today, but his cough still sounds terrible; my senior is trudging through incredibly long days with her required musical rehearsals; my youngest seemed less anxious this morning, which is fantastic; and my oldest is back at the Hope Clinic, which is one of her most tiring service sites. We are, it appears, edging back in the general direction of normalcy.