Reeni’s Turn, a review
Carol Coven Grannick
Fitzroy Books, Regal House 2020
2020 needs a brave, honest book. I looked forward to Carol’s debut, but lost track of it’s pub date in the midst of the pandemic—imagine my surprise to see it in REAL LIFE!
A likely pitch would be a coming-of-age story, a book about body image, about the daily practice to excel—in this case the world of dance.
I’ve known a few young ballerinas and immediately recognized the tremendous pressure these girls are under to “look the part.” They’d work out all morning and come home to half a grapefruit. I remember the audition in the movie Billy Elliot—where the fancy school physician takes the boys and checks their spines. There is an invisible line running from the shoulders to the core, a certain body type that is acceptable in order to make the cut, for the next step up.
Yet, there is also that line after Billy Elliot has flubbed his audition where they ask him what it feels like to dance and he answers existentially: it is freedom, like a bird, like flying.
Reeni for all her struggles understands this feeling—if only it were that easy. But on so many levels there are expectations that have nothing to do with the love of the dance, the freedom to move.
Mary Pipher has her finger on this in her groundbreaking book, Finding Ophelia where she observes that at a certain age girls make a transition from confidence into self-doubt, where they suddenly wake up to their vulnerability. It is when many girls decide to quit soccer, part with their dolls, give up whatever could be perceived as baby-ish or uncool. They embark on a scary path of teenage years wrought with body-image confusion and attacks from boys either verbally or physically. Reeni has to put up with a male classmate talking to her sparkly sweater, walk the halls where the boys snap girls bras as they pass.
In addition, Reeni has to navigate her changing relationship to her father as her own body changes, to her mother as she makes the mistake of restricting food—ending up isolating her mom a potential ally. The same with her sister, pushing her away while at the same time anticipating how lonely she will feel when her sister leaves for college.
This book written in free verse is easily accessible and relatable on so MANY levels. I highly recommend it for a young middle-schooler.
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