Audition by Stacia Ward Kehoe

Sara was a small town girl, going to dance classes since she was small.  But at sixteen her life is dramatically changing.  After auditioning for a New Jersey ballet company, Sara receives news of a scholarship and her excitement builds.  It doesn't matter that she lives three states away in Vermont or that her parents won't accompany her.  It's about her dreams coming to life.  And she's ready.....

Until her new life takes over.  Sara has lost her cocoon of normality.  In her ballet company, she's not like the other big city girls, her training has been different, and her host family and their home isn't what she expected.  Pile on schoolwork from an elite private school, and Sara begins to feel the pressure of living a completely different life without her parents, her friends, her small town.

But with time, things slowly begin to change, especially when she catches the attention of another dancer/choreographer, Remington, who is much older than she is.  She becomes his muse, making his dance come to life as well as Sara's heart, but is Sara truly loved or being used?  Sara tries to balance it all, but it just may be too much.  And where exactly does she fall in Remington's life?

Newcomer Stacia Kehoe writes a novel-in-verse about the trials of a sixteen-year-old in the midst of her triumphs and tragedies.  Kehoe creates that on-the-edge of adulthood situation teens find themselves in control of while outsider's see innocence being played out.  Paired together with the tough and arduous part of a newcomer to the ballet world, this book rings true about the hard work and ethics dancers put upon themselves.  It also does an excellent job of depicting a small town teen and the responsibilities and slip-ups that come along with wanting to deal with life on her own.  Teens who love reading about interpersonal relationships will grativate toward this book.  Recommended for high school.