Sisters Impossible

Nine-year-old Lily admires her rather haughty but beautiful teenaged sister Saundra, who's a dancer. But that doesn't mean Lily wants to go along and enroll in ballet school. Saundra doesn't want her there either. But the girls' parents insist in The Sisters Impossible by author J.D. Landis.

It took digging through rather numerous performing arts/ballet-themed books for me to find this late '70s novel I first discovered and read back in the '90s. While I'd forgotten the title and author, I distinctly remembered the sisters pictured on the (Bantam Starfire) cover. Ah! There they are!

And, gee. I don't know exactly what gave my kid-self the impression that I was reading something more grown-up than children's fiction, at the time. Maybe it show more was Saundra's teen-ness displayed on the cover? Or the serious way the story gave my kid-eyes an enlightening glimpse of some unlovely elements behind the loveliness of the dance and the dancer's life? Or was it the inclusion of a bit of language in the story? (A few instances of "hell" used for nonliteral purposes and one instance of the eight-letter variation of "bull.") Dunno.

But this is very much a middle grade read rather than YA. It's all from Lily's perspective. It's technically simple, child-level reading with repetition that seems to be there to help young minds understand.

It's kinda weird. It's kinda funny. It's sometimes in some in-betweeny place where I can't tell if it means to be funny or if it's just what it is. It's kinda on the dull side at times, belaboring over rather mundane moments.

But at its core, it's a meaningful story of sisterhood, and not in a shallow or even particularly juvenile sense. There's notable depth in what these two sisters experience, learn, and ultimately decide, and the ending trusts the reader's intelligence.

A nice visit down memory lane for me, even if I didn't remember it all. show less