An injury tests a young dancer's resilience in this touching middle-grade slice-of-life, road-trip drama by Upper Skagit author Christine Day (I Can Make This Promise).
Maisie Cannon loves ballet, but after she tears her ACL, the 12-year-old Makah/Piscataway Seattleite trades the barre for rehabilitation exercises. As her friends text about exciting summer program auditions, Maisie begs her physical therapist to let her dance before the next school year. During family time with her mother, stepfather Jack and six-year-old half-brother, Connor, Maisie notices she feels "disconnected from myself. Like I'm not fully here." Her mood becomes volatile and, on a road trip around the Olympic Peninsula, her irritable outbursts surprise her family. While the beauty of the Washington coastline and Jack's stories of his people, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, provide what her mom calls "heart medicine," Maisie worries over the continuing pain in her knee but hides it from her family. When the unthinkable happens, Maisie must learn that the loss of one dream can make way for others.
Day achieves a beautifully nuanced portrayal of the interconnected nature of personal emotional struggles and outside circumstances as well as offering readers assurance that joy and confidence can return after great loss. Her realistic, compassionate portrayal of trauma and healing emphasizes the importance of Maisie's family support structure. The family's closeness gives Maisie a safe place to regain her footing after her devastating fall, and the resolution brings hope of closer ties with her paternal relatives. This thoughtful, honest sophomore novel invites readers to reckon with life's messy complexities while reassuring them that every ending brings the seeds of new beginnings. --Jaclyn Fulwood, youth services manager at Main Branch, Dayton Metro Library