Leaping at Shadows

August 12, 2013
Ballet dancers become ghost-busters in this first book in the Dario Quincy Academy of Dance series, which is written at a fourth-grade reading level and set in a prestigious, potentially haunted boarding school. Madeleine faces challenges as a scholarship student arriving after the semester starts, but she quickly proves herself with her graceful talents. She and her new classmates bond during midnight explorations of the Academy’s spooky basement tunnels in search of stolen keepsakes. Atwood uses a light touch to create pleasant characters and a suspenseful premise, never letting the sinister notes weigh too heavily on the proceedings. Future mysterious adventures await: Stolen Luck, The Cursed Ballet, and Twin Dangers are available simultaneously. Ages 11–up.

August 1, 2013

Gr 6-10-Set in an elite residential ballet school, these stories focus on five students and their friendships, their classes, and the mysteries they encounter in the haunted old building. In the first book, teachers are caught holding cultlike rituals to ward off a curse on the school; in book two, one of the dancers, in a slump, steals a pair of antique pointe shoes from a display case in hopes of improving her luck, but she fears, instead, that she has put a curse on her friends. The plots are a bit far-fetched, but no more so than other popular mystery series such as those by R. L. Stine. The competent writing is suitable to the genre and will appeal to older reluctant readers. Characterization is strong enough to create interest in each of the main characters. The dance terms and ballet-centric subplots give the series special appeal to balletomanes, but they don't so overwhelm the story lines that they will restrict the audience.-Maralita L. Freeny, District of Columbia Public Library

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2013
Grades 7-10 Determined to succeed as a scholarship student at the country's most prestigious residential dance academy, Madeleine suppresses her feeling of foreboding upon entering the massive old building. She gradually makes some friends, and when her grandmother's necklace disappears along with jewelry with sentimental value to other students, the group swings into action. Though fearful of expulsion, the friends explore the sinister stone tunnels beneath the building late at night and fall prey to a cultish group of masked people who want the girls' blood. The encounters with the strange cult are less than convincing, and the portrayals of secondary characters are a bit thin. Still, the idea of horror lurking beneath a ballet school has its appeal. Older readers looking for short, accessible books are the target audience for the Dario Quincy Academy of Dance series. The first volume may end in rescue, but clearly something is very wrong, and further volumes are likely to explore the ongoing mystery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2014
Five teenage girls investigate eerie occurrences at their prestigious-but-creepy ballet academy. Students' family heirlooms disappear and the friends discover teachers performing a ritual with them (Shadows). Kayley steals a pair of pointe shoes said to grant good luck--but as her dancing improves, her friends get inexplicably injured (Luck). Aimed at reluctant readers, these novels are entertaining if not especially original or characterful.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)