Taking Flight by Michaela DePrince - ADVISABLE

DePrince, Michaela Taking Flight, 249 pages.  Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. $16.99.  Language: G (0 swears). Mature Content G; Violence PG 13 (see below)

The book starts by telling about her life as an orphan in Sierra Leone and how she escaped to America. While she was starving and alone, she found an image of a ballerina. This gave her hope and she decided she would become a dancer someday. The rest of the book is a summary of how that dream became a reality.

I really liked this book. It told the truth but it didn’t try to scare you. Her life was hard but she just tells it how it is. Over and over she talks about how blessed she is. It really is a happy book because it provides hope and change. I really like how it talked about discrimination in general, but especially in the ballet world. Michaela didn’t call people out or say mean things, she just stated facts and gave reasoning. All in all, Michaela is just a really nice girl and she tells her story in a very nice way. I loved this book and I would recommend it to anyone but especially dancers.

MS, HS-ADVISABLE. KSC, 18, sjpl