Lately I have been finding myself reading books that have a couple bumps in the flow of the story, but eventually once I let myself get into things, I’m good to go. And Dare You to Dance by Rebecca Mock is another one of those stories.
This does not mean I disliked the story, but I won’t be putting it in my Top Ten Best Books of the Year. I will, however, put it on my couple dozen You Might Like This Book list. Overall Dare You to Dance is a nice story about dance, friendship and the bigger picture. You have a diverse cast, growing pains (literally and figuratively) and the competition of dance classes (which are more of a workshop than this is their schooling, but a few girls will go onto the big league). Maybe things are not as realistic as they would be in real life (even with a few bullies, the girls are really nice and helpful to each other and not the cut throat business we see in other books, or what we’ve heard for real life).
With that being said, it is a good story with maybe a lesson or two (if you want to take them) but mostly it is just an adventure in friendship. It is good for ages 10 and up. The older reader (up to 14) will probably see some of the growing up issues, especially if they are dancers. The younger readers will enjoy the story of “friend-enemies and dance.” Ages 8 to 10 could do it, but some of the concepts are a smidgen older. Of course, you don’t have to like (or even love) dance to enjoy this graphic novel (which is out but at the time I read it it wasn’t, so I read via a physical reader copy) but it doesn’t hurt!
