Brooks Benjamin

middlegrade fiction (5th-8th grades); straight boy who dreams of becoming a professional dancer / middleschool pressures / incidental diversity (one of his dancer friends happens to be gay).

Ah, Middle School, how do I love thee? Not enough to get past chapter 6, I guess.
The writing was fine, I just didn't care to read any more about middle school, or dancing (unless maybe if there was more of a LGBTQ subplot in there, but it didn't appear that way, apart from Dillon's not fitting the gay dancer stereotype). I did think Dillon handled his mistakes and embarrassment with considerable and remarkable aplomb, and I am confident he'll make the right choices later on when things get even tougher and more complicated (between him and his friends, between him and his football-leaning dad, and between him and the mean kids he is pretending to befriend). And probably several of the characters will display various good / ugly facets of personality, providing the appropriate amounts of depth to a middle school story.

Would recommend to students who love dance; I didn't find it that relatable for those of us who don't care as much about dance. Better Nate than Ever, on the other hand is very sweet even if you aren't into musical theater, as is Telgemeier's graphic novel Drama even if you aren't into theater.… (more)