The Turning Pointe
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A bold and emotionally gripping novel about a teenage Latinx girl finding freedom through dance and breaking expectations in 1980s Minnesota.
When sixteen-year-old Rosa Dominguez pirouettes, she is poetry in pointe shoes. And as the daughter of a tyrant ballet Master, Rosa seems destined to become the star principal dancer of her studio. But Rosa would do anything for one hour in the dance studio upstairs where Prince, the Purple One himself, is in the house.
After her father announces their upcoming auditions for a concert with Prince, Rosa is more determined than ever to succeed. Then Nikki--the cross-dressing, funky boy who works in the dance shop--leaps into her life. Weighed down by family expectations, Rosa is at a crossroads, desperate to escape so she can show everyone what she can do when freed of her pointe shoes. Now is her chance to break away from a life in tulle, grooving to that unmistakable Minneapolis sound reverberating through every bone in her body.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1983 Minneapolis, Torres's sprawling debut is told by 16-year-old Rosa Dominguez, a passionate, Prince-obsessed Mexican American dancer whose family has recently undergone significant change. Brought up on ballet—her mother and older sister Gloria were star ballerinas, and the siblings' father, Geno, is the Minnesota Dance Company's tyrannical ballet master—Rosa instead longs to dance "street moves infused with funk, rock and in-your-face intentions." When Geno dangles an opportunity to do just that on stage with Prince if she auditions for a ballet apprenticeship, Rosa agrees. She nevertheless remains engulfed by guilt about the accident that left Gloria partially paralyzed and able to speak only two words, turned their mother into Gloria's caregiver, and precipitated the decision by Geno, who lives with an alcohol reliance, to leave the family. Meanwhile, she meets Puerto Rican Nico "Nikki" Madera, who taps to Van Halen and makes her heart race but faces his own situation. Firmly rooted in era and place, interwoven with Spanish and filled with vivid, frequently gritty, sensory details and suspenseful subplots, the novel powerfully depicts Rosa's emotional voice, deep love for Gloria, and struggles toward understanding, acceptance, and joy. Ages 12–up.
