Spin the Sky
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Magnolia Woodson wants nothing more than to get her and her sister, Rose, out of the pitifully small, clamming-obsessed Oregon town that hates them—she just doesn’t know how. Forced to put up with the snide comments and hateful looks the townspeople throw at them, Mags thinks she’s destined to pay for the horrible, awful thing her mom did—and that she’s left her and Rose to deal with—until the day she dies.
But when a nationwide televised dance competition posts tryouts in nearby Portland, Mags’s best friend, George, says they have to go and audition. Not only have they spent the past fourteen years of their lives dancing side-by-side, dreaming of a day just like this, but also it could be Mags’s chance of a lifetime—a chance to win the grand-prize money and get her and Rose out of Summerland, a chance to do the thing she loves most with everyone watching, a chance to show the town that she’s not—and has never been—a “no-good Woodson girl,” like her mother. But will the competition prove too steep? And will Mags be able to retain her friendship with George as they go head-to-head in tryouts? Mags will have to learn that following her dreams may mean changing her life forever.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Magnolia "Mags" Woodson, 18, has always turned to dance when things got bad. After Mags's mother, a sometimes prostitute and constant drug addict, causes the death of the mayor's daughter in a drug overdose, the reputations of Mags and her older sister, Rose, are tarnished, making life in Summerland, Ore., almost unbearable. But Mags has a plan: she is going to try out for a reality dance competition, Live to Dance, where she hopes to win over her town, in addition to the cash prize. Debut author MacKenzie, a former dancer, believably captures Mags's overburdened and self-defeating voice, as well as her confusion over her crush on her (probably gay) best friend George and her petty jealousies involving others vying for George's attentions. However, as realistic as Mags's voice is, and as on-point MacKenzie's descriptions of dance are, the narrative is slow and meandering. The story picks up once the competition begins, but Mags's development as a character doesn't really start until after her inevitable injury. Ages 12 up.